Boba Out of Hell
by LittleSaxony
Summary: Sasuke never felt the need to go on a date with Sakura. Until she asked someone else. SasuSaku, AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author'****s Notes: Sadly (or comically), this story is inspired by real events. I actually have friends immature enough to do this.**

Boba Out of Hell

Four o'clock found Sasuke sitting on top of a toilet in a movie theatre bathroom stall, trying to avoid detection. He listened carefully to the sounds of a faucet running and the swinging of the door, and then in the silence he gingerly placed his foot on the floor and unlocked the stall. Except for him and a few stray popcorn kernels the washroom was deserted.

As stealthily as he could manage, Sasuke crept back into the theatre, trying very hard to remain hidden. He had almost made it when-

"Stop right there, young man!" shouted the security guard. When Sasuke could not present a valid ticket or decent excuse, the guard pulled him to the exit and shoved him roughly out the door. "If I catch you doing this again, I'll call the cops," he sniffed and slammed the door.

Sasuke frowned, annoyed. It wasn't his fault that his older brother had swiped his allowance for pachinko money. He hauled himself up and wiped the asphalt off his arms. _Fine then, _he thought. _I'll just wait them out._ He smiled to himself; it definitely helped that he knew where they were headed next.

It was a quick walk from the movies to the mall, but it started drizzling en route. Sasuke managed to get inside before he got too wet and ordered himself a bubble tea from the food court. Positioning himself in a dark, dry corner, he lay in wait.

Sure enough, not five minutes later he attained visuals of his targets. Or rather, target- the spare could go to hell and rot there as far as Sasuke was concerned.

"So what did you think of the movie?" chirped Sakura to her companion, a bug-eyed boy named Lee. They had gotten drinks now, and were seated at a table within earshot of Sasuke.

"I thought it was marvelous. One of the most evocative films of the year," replied Lee. "I particularly enjoyed Sugiyama-san's performance. I think that he and Nakamura have real chemistry in front of the camera."

_Well, look who's the closet film critic, _thought Sasuke spitefully, spinning the tapioca pearls around the bottom of his cup with his straw. Sakura gave Lee a bright smile and Sasuke almost melted with jealousy and the irony of it all.

Sakura had had a preference for him, even when they were little kids, but it wasn't until recently that Sasuke had began to look at his neighbor a little differently. It had all started, he supposed, with that time that he walked in on her.

It really wasn't a rare occurrence for Sasuke to be over at Sakura's house. He had played there a lot when he was younger and he even had a spare key for when he house-sat for the Haruno's, and this time his mother had sent him to pick up some books for a charity drive she was helping to organize. Sakura's mom and his mom were close, so it was only natural that Haruno-san contribute; they were always doing blood drives and runs for charity together.

"I've got a whole box full up in Sakura's room," said Haruno-san. "She's been purging through her library too, but I'm sure she's done by now."

Sasuke had nodded and headed up the stairs towards Sakura's room. Automatically he grabbed the doorknob and let himself in. "Hey Sakura, can I have the-"

"AH!" Sakura shrieked, pulling a towel closer to her body. "Get-"

She hadn't even needed to finish her sentence before Sasuke bolted out of Sakura's room, slamming the door behind him. Mortified, he leaned against the wall and tried to compute what had just happened. It was not unusual for him to barge in unannounced, but he had never caught her changing before. He had also never seen Sakura naked before, and whenever he closed his eyes, the visage of her clutching a towel to her bare chest came to mind. Sasuke blushed, but try as he might he could not rid the image from his head.

A few minutes later, a fully garbed Sakura shuffled out of her room with a large cardboard box filled with books. She was looking down at anything except him, and her face was just as flushed as his. For an agonizing moment the two just stood there, not knowing what to do.

Finally Sakura muttered "Here," and shoved the book into Sasuke's arms. She ran back into her room and slammed the door.

"Something wrong?" asked Haruno-san when Sasuke came back down stairs. "I heard a shout."

Sasuke blushed harder, if that was possible. "Sakura saw a spider," he sputtered and hightailed it out of the sliding glass door.

That night, a curious Sasuke had flipped through yearbooks from semesters past. When had Sakura become so… pretty? He hadn't really looked at her in a long time, and gone was the short, skinny girl with too high a forehead. Now she was an authentic sixteen year old young woman and had the looks and curves to match. Sasuke went to bed that night still unable to get Sakura out of his head.

That had been a few weeks ago. Since that time, Sasuke had noticed other things about Sakura that he had overlooked before. First off, she sure seemed to drink a lot of boba tea. Secondly, when had she bought that dress and since when did her mother let her wear stuff like that? Not that it was inappropriate or anything, it just made her look very grown up. A lot more grown up that Sasuke felt. But perhaps most disturbingly, Sasuke became painfully aware that she no longer asked him out.

Since middle school Sakura had been trying to weasel her way into Sasuke's spare time. She had started with official-sounding confessions and proposals in seventh grade. "Will you go out with me, Sasuke?" she had begged in front of the entire class. At the time Sasuke's face had lit up in embarrassment and in retrospect he had shot her down a little more harshly than she deserved, but it had never stopped her from asking again. By high school, she had moved on to more subtle requests when they were in private, like, "Hey, Ino-chan, Hinata-chan, Naruto and I are going to the beach this weekend, do you want to come?" or sometimes "Sasuke, want to hang out sometime this weekend?" But Sasuke always had plans, and although a part of him wanted to go, the idea of hanging out with Sakura made him feel strange, like he was entering unsure territory.

He had not really known then the root of his discomfort at the time, but watching Lee and Sakura chitchat from across the food court only intensified the feeling. Only yesterday she had asked him to accompany her to the same movie and he had almost- almost! said yes, until he remember what he was beginning to think of as the Towel Incident. It had never occurred to him that she would ask someone else, or that someone else would agree. He had happened to overhear Naruto mention to Neji that Sakura had a date with an upperclassman in the locker room before soccer practice. When Neji confirmed that yes, his friend Lee was going, Sasuke had grabbed his backpack and headed out the door. He could hear Naruto snickering behind him, but to hell with Naruto. To hell with soccer practice. He was going to the movies.

Just thinking about it made Sasuke seethe. Taking another sip of his tea, he wished he could throw something at Lee's head and wipe that stupid grin off his face. Through the straw a tapioca pearl bumped into his teeth.

Suddenly Sasuke had an idea. Keeping the pearl in his mouth, he pulled the straw out of his cup and brought the empty tube to his lips. He maneuvered the pearl back into the straw and took aim.

With a sharp breath, he sent a boba ball hurtling towards Lee at a million miles an hour. With a satisfying SPLITH noise, the sticky mass collided with the back of Lee's head and stuck in his hair like a grotesquely oversized, purple louse. Lee jerked up and his hands flew to the back of his head.

"What's wrong?" asked Sakura, looking at Lee like he had grown an extra head.

Perplexed, Lee shrugged and dropped his hands. "I thought I felt something hit the back of my head, Sakura-chan, but I must have imag-"

THWAP! Another pearl struck Lee's head and bounced onto the floor, where Sakura noticed it.

Sasuke smiled. Why not go for an even three? He lifted his blow-dart shooter to his mouth again and fired. Unfortunately Sakura chose this time to get up and investigate the back of Lee's head- and block the target. Three seconds later there was a boba ball lodged in her own hair. With lightning speed she pivoted around and stared angrily around the food court. Sasuke dodged underneath behind a nearby counter as Sakura's eyes glazed over the spot he had been sitting at.

She frowned. "Um, Lee, I had a lot of fun, but I think I'd better be going. See you later, ok?" she said and scampered off before Lee could make another move. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief. He knew for a fact that Sakura was saving her first kiss for him, and the idea of Sakura throwing away something that was rightfully his- to someone like Lee, no less- gave him the overwhelming urge to vomit. Satisfied, he crept toward the door and ran all the way home.

Since he didn't live far, Sasuke actually beat Sakura home on foot, even though she had taken her parent's car. It was raining harder now and by the time he got home he was soaking, but at least he felt better. _Sakura'll__ never see that Lee freak again,_ he thought proudly. Sasuke was just beginning to rummage for a victory snack in the refrigerator when he heard a knock at the door.

Without waiting for him to answer it, Sakura marched through the living room and into the kitchen. Sasuke's pulse picked up slightly.

"Sasuke," she said tensely, shutting the refrigerator door near his face, "were you perchance at the mall today?"

Sasuke straightened up, trying to keep a calm face. "No," he grunted. "I was at soccer practice." As evidence, he shook his hair and sprayed drops of water on the floor. He reopened the fridge and turned away from her. "Where were you?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could.

Sakura sighed. "I was out."

"Like on a date?" Sasuke pulled out a can of soda and a tomato.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Have fun?" asked Sasuke viciously.

Sakura stepped closer to him, trapping him in front of the counter. Sasuke's heart pounded so loud he was surprised she couldn't hear it. "Sort of," she purred, a smile on her face. She twined her arms around his neck and moved a little closer, so that Sasuke's back was pressed up against the counter. "But you know what would have been more fun?"

"What?" Sasuke played along as tonelessly as he could manage.

Sakura smirked. In a split second she swooped up and pressed her lips to Sasuke's. Sasuke involuntarily jumped at the sudden contact but kissed her back, getting caught up with the sudden pounding of his heart in his own ears. Her mouth was pushing against his really hard and she was running her hands through his hair and-

SMACK! She slapped him across the face. Sasuke staggered.

"I knew it," she huffed, holding up a small pearl from his hair. "I can't believe you, Uchiha Sasuke!" With that, she turned on her heel and left him, breathless and pained, on his kitchen floor, where his brother found him ten minutes later.

"What's with you?" snorted Itachi, plunking a handful of pachinko prize trinkets onto the table. "Have a fight with your _girlfriend_?" he drawled mockingly.

"Go to hell!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: Due to all the positive feedback I received for **_**Boba Out of Hell, **_**I decided to write a companion piece. ****Enjoy.**

The Remedies and Reactions of Uchiha Sasuke

There was thirty minutes left in this class, and Sasuke was going to watch each of them go by until lunch began. Half an hour until he could run up to Sakura, take her aside, apologize and sweep her off her feet and live happily ever after, like he was supposed to.

That day at school had been an utter disaster so far. Sakura, who had always been an early riser, left for school early and didn't give him a ride like she usually did, leaving him to condescend to beg Itachi for a ride to school. So not only was Sasuke late, but the passenger seat of Itachi's car was covered in cat hair, consequently coating Sasuke as well. And while Sakura hadn't been openly hostile to him, she had definitely been making herself scarce. She didn't sit next to him in any of their classes together and wouldn't talk to him. Things were not looking good for Sasuke right now: he knew that if he didn't clear things up with her before lunch, then he would have a very awkward meal. On top of that, people would talk.

Kakashi-sensei was at the board, writing down an equation and droning on about quadratics. Quietly, Sasuke ripped out a piece of paper from his notebook. _I need to talk to you_, he jotted down, and then crumpled the note. When he knew Kakashi wasn't looking, he launched it forward and it hit the back of Sakura's head.

Confused, she turned around and picked the wad up from off the ground and unfolded it. She looked over her shoulder at Sasuke. _Give her an encouraging smile!_ he thought frantically. _Mom says those work!_ Unfortunately, the best Sasuke could manage was an unnatural-looking smirk. Obviously annoyed, Sakura glanced down, scribbled something onto the note and chucked it back to Sasuke.

_What can you possibly have to say to me? You ruined my date yesterday on purpose._

Sasuke scowled. So it had been an official date, then.

_I'm sorry._

_Why did you do it anyways? How could you be such a jerk like that?_

A jerk? She wasn't going to get off easy for that one.

_So I'm a jerk now? I thought I was your Love of a Lifetime or something._

_Shut up. That was seventh grade, I haven't said that in years._

_Or what about Smexy Sasuke? You used to call me that too._

Sasuke could see her flush with embarrassment.

_Ino came up with that one._

_Whatever. I bet yo__u thought I was smexy last night when you crammed your tongue down my throat._

_I didn't hear you complain, asshole!_

She had a point there. Frustrated, Sasuke got out another piece of paper and took a deep breath. He was venturing into uncharted territory here.

_I think I like you now, ok?_ He wrote and folded up the note. He flung it at Sakura, and this time it landed right in the center of her desk.

Sakura took one look at it and flung it back over her shoulder to him, unread. _She's got some nerve,_ he thought. _I can wear her down, though._ Determined to get her attention, Sasuke threw the note at Sakura's head- and missed. Overshooting her entirely, the note spun through the air and hit the top of Naruto's book. The blood rushed out of Sasuke's face. Naruto turned and gave him a weird look, and was about to unfold the thing when-

"Passing notes in class, are we, Uchiha?" said Kakashi without turning around, making Sasuke wonder if he had eyes in the back of his head. Kakashi turned and walked up to Naruto's desk in the front row. "Give it to me, Uzumaki."

To Sasuke's everlasting horror, Kakashi unfolded the note and read it aloud the class.

"_'I think I like you now, ok?'_" Kakashi chuckled and the rest of the class burst into hysterics, except Sakura, who blushed furiously. Sasuke didn't know whether it was from anger or not. "Well that's very sweet of you, Uchiha, but please take care of yours and Uzumaki's personal lives outside of the classroom. Now, about the slope of a line…"

Sasuke put his head down on his desk. _This is __not__ my day._

When the bell finally rang, Sakura was out the door before Sasuke even put his is binder in his backpack. As he stood up to leave, Naruto came up to his desk.

"Please tell me that wasn't for me."

Sasuke scowled. "Of course not."

Naruto snickered and smiled like a Cheshire cat. "Was it for Sa-ku-ra?" he asked teasingly, pronouncing each syllable painstakingly slow. "How was the movie yesterday?"

"Shut up."

"It was bound to happen sometime, Sasuke." The two walked out of the classroom and down the hall to their lockers. "So since when?" asked Naruto, bending down to reach into his locker and dump his backpack inside.

"Since I saw- nevermind," said Sasuke, hoping Naruto wouldn't push it.

"Come on, I told you all about my deal with Hinata, so you have to spill now. Since when?"

"Since I saw her naked, ok?" Sasuke muttered, embarrassed.

"You saw her NAKED?"

"You don't have to shout!"

"Damn, no wonder she's been so icy to you all day." Naruto slammed his locker shut and turned back to Sasuke. "So hey, is she hot without a shirt?"

Sasuke turned red as a tomato and punched Naruto in the shoulder, then stormed off to the cafeteria.

After he bought his lunch came the struggle of where to sit. Sasuke was not unpopular; although not a very outgoing person himself, his good looks and friendship with Naruto had won him many an acquaintance. His first inclination was to go over to the table that he usually shared with Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Naruto, and Sai, but when he looked over, the girls glared back at him, sending dangerous vibes. Sai doodled in apathetically in his notebook, and Naruto was off buying juice for Hinata from a vending machine. Sakura was no where to be found. Sasuke decided that today was a good day to sit with his friends from the soccer team.

"We missed you at practice yesterday," said the team captain, Neji, with a smirk. "Where did you go?"

"Yeah, Sas-_gay_, did you have a pedicure appointment or something?" sniggered Kiba, who had been in math with Sasuke that morning. "Or did you go shopping with Naru-chan-"

"Naruto went to practice yesterday, dumbass," snapped Sasuke.

"Guy-sensei says he's going to make you run a hundred laps around the field today as punishment for ditching practice," Neji started. "So how was the-"

"Good afternoon, Neji!" chimed a voice from behind them. Sasuke looked up and came face to face with Bushy Brows himself, Rock Lee, and although tried to contain his laughter. He had almost forgotten that Sakura had totally ditched Lee, and even though Sasuke knew that he should feel guilty, he only felt mirth every time he remembered Lee's hands flying around his hair, looking for a lone tapioca ball.

"I was wondering if I could borrow your notes for biology. I seem to have misplaced mine," continued Lee.

"Of course, Lee," replied Neji cordially. Then, looking directly at Sasuke, he asked, "So how was your outing with Haruno-san?"

Lee made a strangled face. "It went well," he squeaked, "We both enjoyed the movie. But she had to go home pretty early, so we didn't get to talk much." He looked genuinely hurt. "But she apologized this morning-" Sasuke's smirk slid off his face-"and said that she had an important appointment that she had to keep yesterday evening."

Neji, who had not missed Sasuke's expression, gave Lee a sympathetic smile. "Maybe she'll agree to see another one with you, Lee. Here's my notes."

Lee smiled. "Perhaps. Thank you, Neji. I will have these back to you before your practice begins."

As soon as he was gone, Neji burst into laughter. "Next time you ditch practice, make sure you accomplish something. He doesn't seem all that deterred."

Sasuke was forced to put up with Kiba's taunts all during English class, although mercifully the teacher was a foreigner and did not speak enough Japanese to realize what was being said, sparing Kiba from getting to rehash the joke. But by sixth period PE, all the comments about Sas-_uke_ and Sas-_gay_ were getting a little old. Sasuke's mood was slightly improved, however, when he remembered that Sakura was in that class with him.

Today's sport was volleyball. Asuma-sensei divided the class into a few teams and broke out the balls, setting his (for the most part unenthusiastic) students loose. Sasuke had to play hitter up in front against Sakura, who stood a mere net's breadth away from him. Before the first serve, Sasuke decided to make his move.

"Look, Sakura, we really need to talk."

"Service!" yelled Ino, who proceeded to slam the ball over the net. It landed beside Shikamaru, who was standing directly behind Sakura. He let the ball hit the floor and watched it bounce a few times before moving to pick it up, buying Sasuke a few more minutes.

"Sasuke, I heard what was in that note," said Sakura.

"One-zero, service!"

She didn't look mad anymore, and seemed just as eager to broach the subject as Sasuke. "And while it was very-"

THAM! From behind, the volleyball slammed into Sasuke's head. Ears ringing, he turned around to see Ino gasp. "I'm sorry, Sasuke! I wasn't aiming right, it was all my fault-"

"Maybe Sas-_gay_ wouldn't have gotten hit if he was paying attention and not trading fashion tips with Sakura!" interjected Kiba loudly.

Head still searing with pain, Sasuke rounded on Kiba. "God, I told you to shut up already-"

"Yeah?" shouted Naruto from across the court. "Well I know for a fact that Sasuke isn't gay! He told me he saw Sakura-chan naked and that he liked it!"

There were gasps around the gym. Sasuke flung the ball at Kiba's face with full force, where it hit his nose and started spurting blood. Naruto, realizing his blunder, tried to save himself with a "He really likes her, you know!" Sakura sprinted out the gym doors. Asuma-sensei blew his whistle, silencing the pandemonium.

"Ok, everyone, settle down," he ordered flatly. "Nara, take Inuzuki to the nurse and send for a janitor, else wise he'll stain the floor. Yamanaka, go see if you can coax Haruno out of the bathroom and Uchiha, get your ass to the principal's office."

Needless to say, Sasuke was suspended from school for the remainder of that day and all of the next. To make matters worse, both of his parents were out and the only one who could pick him up was his older brother, who was embarrassingly inebriated by the time he arrived in the school parking lot.

"How much have you had to drink already today?" whispered Sasuke when they got to the parking lot. "Tsunade's going to think our parents are insane- give me those keys, I'm driving home."

"Stupid little brother," groaned Itachi. "You don't have your license…" but he handed over the keys and got into the passenger's seat.

"What did you do today?" scolded Sasuke as he started the car. "Driving while drunk is dangerous, you know that?"

"Kisame and I met some friends of his for lunch. It was only one margarita…"

Sasuke huffed and pulled out of the school parking lot. "You really can't hold your alcohol well, can you?"

"Shut up." Another groan. "At least I can legally drink it."

"Well at least I don't need alcohol to feel sophisticated," Sasuke shot back. "I have-"

The sounds of sirens cut him off. Shocked, Sasuke peered into the rear view mirror to see the shining red and blue lights of a police cruiser behind him. _Shit!_

"You're s'posed to pull over," whined Itachi. Sasuke did so and stopped the car, rolling down the window as the cop made his approach. Itachi began to rummage around in the glove compartment for the car's registration.

"Young man, do you have any idea how fast you were going? This is a school zone- Sasuke?!"

Sasuke groaned. Of all the cops in the city, it had to be-

"Young man, your school doesn't end for another forty minutes, so pray tell what you and your brother are doing at fifty five miles an hour a school zone when I KNOW that you don't have your permit?"

-his father.

Sasuke gulped. "Well, Dad, I…" losing all sense of speech, he gestured futilely at the school , then gave up entirely. Ashamed, he handed his father the suspension notice that Tsunade had given him.

Uchiha Fugako's face paled in anger, and his voice turned deathly quiet. "Go home and sit in your room until your mother gets home," he said barely above a whisper. "We will deal with this later." Then, turning to his clipboard, he wrote Sasuke a ticket, handed it to him, and sent him on his way.

Itachi laughed wickedly the rest of the drive home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: So how was that**** last**** chapter of ****Shippuuden**** for y'all? I think it was quite a ****do****o****zy****, and explains a lot. ****Itachi's**** a maniac! To be honest, I'm not much of an Itachi fan (he's a **_**serial killer**_**, not a ****hottie****), but I have to admit that seeing Sasuke and Itachi be all brotherly during those flashback episodes of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc made me feel all warm and fuzzy. So for the purposes of this story he will function more as comic relief than anything else, although you've already received hints that he does weird stuff on his time off- just to preserve the "****crazed****" aspect of his character without actually having to write it.**

**As always, feedback is very much appreciated.**

The Challenge

"We are very disappointed in you, Sasuke," said his mother. Although her voice sounded smooth and calm on the surface, her face seethed anger and annoyance.

"How could you have done something as foolish as that? Itachi never managed to get suspended from school!" shouted his father. "I thought I raised you better-"

"Fugako," his mother snapped, silencing her husband. He sat down in a chair with his teeth clenched; obviously he had much more to say but was holding off for the sake efficiency, as Mikoto was much better at this sort of thing.

"Sasuke," she continued placidly. "I agree with your father. I thought we had raised you to have better outlets for your anger. We expect better of you in the future."

Sasuke hung his head, embarrassed. His mother always had a way of making him feel ashamed of himself. Mercifully, she was probably done now, and he could take his punishment and go.

"Consider yourself grounded for the next three weeks. In addition, you will spend all of your day off doing our yard work. And then the Haruno's. When you get back to school, you will apologize to that poor boy for breaking his nose."

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke nodded and turned to leave.

"Oh and Sasuke, your cousin is coming down from the city tomorrow to visit. He can room it you."

Now truly feeling sorry for himself, Sasuke moped up the stairs and flopped down on his bed, staring at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

Determined not to let him enjoy any part of his day off, Mikoto dragged Sasuke out of bed long before he would normally rise for school. She had even made a list of tasks for him to do, a whole page of unsavory activities that she and Haruno-san had compiled the night before. Outfitted in a pair of old jeans and a tee shirt, he set to work when the sun rose.

He had already finished raking the leaves at 8:40, but was surprised when Sakura never came down to leave for school. He glanced anxiously at her window and even waited by the fence for a few minutes before starting up the lawnmower, but he didn't see her. The house was still, as both her parents had already left for work. Sighing, Sasuke started on the lawn.

After he had finished all of his own property's chores, he hiked next door and started in on Haruno-san's list, during which his thoughts inevitably turned to Sakura. It seemed like they had known each other forever- they had always lived next door to each other, and she had been in love with him for as long as he could remember. Even in kindergarten, she had chased him around the yard with her lips puckered, trying to kiss him. At the time the idea had revolted him; however, when she wasn't trying to get him to marry her, they always had fun together.

Things had changed when they went into about the sixth grade. Boys and girls didn't play together anymore because the boys wanted to play rough without having to slow down for their old female friends and the girls were more interested in giggling behind their backs anyway. Even up to eighth grade, some people "went out," but always broke up a week later anyway. In retrospect, that was the last thing Sasuke wanted with Sakura. By the time they were in high school she had rejoined his immediate group of friends, and in actuality was probably his best friend after Naruto. In high school, couples really did date and court, but Sasuke had never paid much attention up until now.

Now that he thought about it, Sasuke had never really had a crush on a girl before. None of them had ever stood out to him: they were all the same, giggly and foreign, and Sakura was his prototype. Although for the last several weeks a slightly nauseating feeling had been building up in Sasuke whenever he saw Sakura being friendly with other guys, culminating into pure jealous frustration when he found out that she was going to the movies with Lee.

Had all those summer nights they spent eating ice cream on his porch meant nothing to her? What about all those times he had stopped some of the tougher girls from pounding her into the ground? Or that time they had found that stupid cat in a box by the side of the road that she had decided to keep- and she would rather spend her time with Lee? The idea hurt to even consider. Lately, when he saw her coming up to him with a smile, he felt a change in himself, like he wanted to be stronger, smarter, better when she was around. She always left him happier than she found him, even when he turned her date offers down- in addition to her charm and wit brightening his day, deep down it gave him a sort of sick sense of pleasure to know that she still wanted him, out of all the other guys at school.

After all, even if Sasuke hadn't been looking at her, other guys had, starting with Naruto. At first it had merely been annoying that Naruto tolerated her and drooled over her and vied vainly for his attention, but on the occasion that Sakura had actually granted it to him, the two had become unbearable together- like they were in on some sort of private joke that Sasuke couldn't comprehend. That sense of distance had faded when Naruto began to hang out with Hinata more. Sasuke remembered being privately relieved when his blond blundering friend gave Sakura some space so that things could finally be normal again. But it wasn't just Naruto, it was Lee, who paraded his emotions wantonly to the world, it was the waiter at the ramen shop who smiled too much and gave only Sakura discounts, it was every other guy who looked at her to check her out that made Sasuke even tenser than before. Hell, even Itachi had recently commented on what a pretty girl Sakura had grown up to be.

If having a crush made you want to punch someone for pointing out the obvious, Sasuke decided, then he was in over his head. He frowned and glanced up at Sakura's window. If she hadn't gone to school today, she was probably still in there. Turning off the lawn mower, Sasuke turned and snatched up a pebble from the gravel in the driveway and tossed on up to her window. It tapped against the class and fell back down into the bushes, but the curtains were still. He tried again with the same results.

It was noontime now, and the sun beat down on him as he stood sweaty and confused in Sakura's yard. Suddenly Sasuke smirked- he had an idea. As gracefully as he could manage, he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and peeled it over his head. He tossed it lazily over onto the fence and yawned dramatically before turning to the lawnmower again.

Sure enough, a few minutes later he glanced over his shoulder to see Sakura's eyes peering into the yard. Smiling, he raised his arm to wave. She disappeared from behind the glass, and a few seconds later the window slid open and the curtains flew back.

"Don't you try that on me, Uchiha Sasuke!" she yelled, leaning out the window. "I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"You just did," he yelled back.

"Don't get smart with me!" Sakura screeched angrily. "I can't believe you told _Naruto_ about-" she flushed bright red- "about _that_!"

It was Sasuke's turn to blush, why did she have to remind him? "Sakura, we have to talk!" he shouted grimly, then remembered something. "Hey, why didn't you go to school today?"

"Because I'm too EMBARASSED, dumbass!"

"Get down here!"

To his amazement, Sakura disappeared from the window and came into the yard in her house slippers. She stiffly marched over to him and said, "Is it about the note? Because I heard what was in it but that doesn't change anything!"

"It changes _everything_!" growled Sasuke, growing angrier by the minute. _Why does she have to be so stubborn? _

"Well I've given up on you!" she screamed in his face, eyes tearing. "Do you understand me? I'm never going to ask you out again, so go take your feelings somewhere else!"

"If you gave up on me, why did you kiss me?" Sasuke demanded, equally as intense as her screaming.

"Because I was suspicious and it was the only way to confirm my theory!"

"So you take advantage of me to prove yourself right?!"

"You swear like I raped you or something. It was just a kiss. It didn't mean anything," she snapped irately, although her voice had dropped to the level of normal speech.

"Then why do it if it didn't mean anything? It was your first kiss and we both know it. Isn't that shit important to girls or something?" he retorted.

Sakura's jaw clenched. "Are you implying," she hissed dangerously quietly, "that I couldn't have possibly kissed someone else before you?" The blood drained from Sasuke's face. He had never considered that. Sakura went on. "And do you mean to say that no one else would WANT to kiss me? What makes you think you are so fricking special that-"

"Who else have you kissed?" Sasuke interrupted furiously.

"Urgh! Just you, jerk! Just so that I could say that I'd done it before I give up on you!" she screamed, crying now.

"Damn it Sakura, did you not hear what was in the note? You-don't-have to give up on-me!" he said through clenched teeth. "I l…li…" He stumbled in the moment of truth, but managed to push the word through his mouth before his breathing stalled. "…like you, ok?"

Sakura froze, staring straight into his eyes with a confused look in her face. Sasuke felt his heart pound through his chest, which speed up expectantly as he leaned forward. This was his moment! _How did she do it last time?_ He tilted his head to the side slightly, clamped his eyes shut, leaned forward and felt her exhale gently on his face. He smiled lightly, eyes still shut, and catapulted through the space between them to meet-

Her fingers.

Surprised, Sasuke jerked his eyes open only to see her luminous green ones staring right back at him, only a hair's breadth from brushing eyelashes. She was holding her hand up in front of her mouth and after a second, her eyebrows furrowed and her faced hardened. She shoved his face aside roughly.

"Liar," she breathed. Turning on her heel, she ran towards the house, barely containing sobs. She slammed the door and that was that.

An utterly confused Sasuke did not know what to make of it. The part of his brain that had not been scrambled in their scuffle told him that he was definitely worse off than when he started. She didn't believe him when he said that he liked her? Worse, she said that she was giving up on him- would that mean she'd go out with other guys? _This is bad.__ Bad, bad-_

WHAP! Something hard as a cinderblock collided with the back of Sasuke's shoulder.

"Hey Little Cousin!"

Sasuke's eyes widened and he spun around. Sure enough, Uchiha Obito was standing behind him, covered in dirt and Haruno-san's azaleas, with a goofy, sparkly smile plastered onto his face. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Tob," he started suspiciously, "how long have you been sitting in the bushes?"

Obito laughed. "Well, my flight came in around ten, and it took the bus an hour and a half to get here…" he glanced at his watch, "… and it's about twelve thirty now. So…"

"You've been watching me for the past half hour?!" shouted Sasuke, mortified.

Obito kept smiling stupidly, reminding Sasuke horribly of Naruto. "Yup! I was going to say hi, but you started taking off your shirt and I realized- you've grown up since the last time I saw you, Little Cousin!"

Sasuke didn't know whether to be indignant or slightly disturbed. "The last time you saw me was at the family reunion when I was eight."

"Exactly! And just as I was thinking, 'Wow, Little Cuz is almost a man now,' that hot girl came outside!"

"Toby, you shouldn't check out girls like that!" snapped Sasuke. "She is way, way, WAY too young for you, I mean, she's- she's-" he struggled to find the words, "she's young enough for you to be her… teacher or something!"

"And then I realized. That's the same cute little girl that was holding your hand after the reunion when Auntie Mikoto and Uncle Fugako let me crash here!"

Inwardly, Sasuke was kicking himself. That had been so embarrassing and yet analytically speaking, he couldn't help but see it as just another example of all the chances he had passed up.

Obito was smiling excitedly now. "And that's when I figured out, Little Cousin is in love!"

Sasuke groaned.

"But he is not having much luck!"

_Understatement of the year…_

"So your Big Cousin Toby will help you!" proclaimed Obito, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest assuredly. "Together with Itachi-chan-"

"NO!"

"-and all of my cool friends, we will make that pretty girl fall in love with you once again so that you can get married and have children!"

The thought of getting married to Sakura had never seriously even crossed his mind, but now that he was older, it struck a cord. He'd get to see her every day… he wouldn't have to worry about her going out with other guys… and having children with her… Sasuke blushed, remembering the Towel Incident. _But if we were married, I'd get to look at her like that as much as I want!_ A chill went down Sasuke's spine.

"And then I'd be an uncle!"

Sasuke frowned. "No, Tob, then you'd be a first cousin once removed," he explained.

"And you can even name one after me!" Obito's eyes widened. "That would be _bad ass_. Come on, I'm calling my friends. Let's go!"

Obito practically skipped next door to the Uchiha's house. Resigned, Sasuke grabbed his shirt from off the fence and wheeled the lawnmower into his garage.

"So hey Little Cousin, where should I put my stuff?"

**End Notes: I love Obito. Poor Sasuke, with his mind in the gutter- but then, he is an adolescent boy. ****He is also an immature boy. To his credit, ****his selfish, possessive tendencies**** in this ****fic**** derive from the desire to loved**** and cherished by Sakura. He's just not really attuned to his feelings, both physically and emotionally. Also, if you were wondering, the Chapter One kiss was ****Sasuke's**** first kiss as well, but he doesn't set much store in the significance and sanctity of one's first kiss, so it's much less important to him.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: And so, Sasuke finds himself mired in the swamps of first love. Poor sap. This chapter is dedicated to my best friend Roxanne, who act as my beta reader and is always willing to trade theories with me.**** Part of this chapter was her idea.**** Thanks, Trixy!**

Shonen Ai for the Anime Guy

"So how was your flight, Toby-chan?" said Mikoto with a smile during dinner.

"It was very quick and smooth, Auntie," he replied happily. "I'd recommend that airline anytime."

"And Sasuke, you got all your work done for today?"

Itachi snickered from across the table.

"Yes, Mom," Sasuke murmured. After Obito arrived, Sasuke had to set up a bed for him in his room and put up with his incessant chatter until his parents came home. They made him clean both bathrooms, scrape out the storm drain, and wash both of their cars- and Itachi's!- before dinner, leaving him completely bushed. To make matters worse, his exchange with Sakura left him mentally shredded, not to mention slightly sunburned.

When dinner was over, Sasuke was officially relieved from duty. Mercifully, Obito volunteered to clean up after dinner, earning an "aw, what a sweet nephew we have!" from Mikoto and an approving "hn" from Fugako. When he got to his room he collapsed on his bed, exhausted, and didn't even hear when Obito blundered in a few hours later to retire.

The next morning, Sasuke sat in silence as his mother drove him to school. Although in a quiet mood, he actually felt well rested and was looking forward to going back to school, especially soccer practice, although he still didn't know what he was going to do about Sakura.

How could he get her to believe him? He couldn't just let her go… could he? Unfortunately, Sasuke was not the only one with the Haruno girl in their thoughts.

"So I've noticed that Sakura hasn't been giving you rides to school lately. Did something happen?" asked Mikoto, mildly concerned.

"No," lied Sasuke.

"Hmm." Mikoto was quiet for a moment. "You know, she's grown up into a very pretty girl." Sasuke scowled. Why did everyone keep reminding him? "It would be a shame if you two were to let something trivial get in the way of your friendship. She's always been so sweet to you." Mikoto giggled girlishly. "Remember when you were scared to start kindergarten, and you started crying when I had to leave you at the door? She came right up to you and gave you a kiss on the cheek and led you down to the mat with the other kids. You looked so cute together, hand in hand…" she trailed of with a wistful smile. "Well. I'm sure whatever it is, you'll work it out sooner or later. Sakura's not one to hold a grudge." Mikoto smirked and reached over to ruffle his hair affectionately. "Especially against you, Sas-cakes."

"Don't call me that," whined Sasuke, who shook his hair back into place.

Mikoto sighed. "Little boys and little girls grow up, I suppose."

Sasuke couldn't be more relieved when they pulled into the school parking lot. "Sasuke," called his mother as he was leaving, "Don't forget to apologize to that boy." She shot him a stern look and drove off. Sighing, Sasuke trudged off to class.

When he sat down for homeroom, Sasuke was relieved to notice that Sakura was also back at school, although still avoiding him like the plague. He said nothing to Kiba as he passed him on the way to his seat, but Sasuke was slightly pleased to see that the other boy's nose was still completely wrapped in surgical tape. Class began, but Sasuke didn't pay much heed to what was going on. By the time lunch began, his mind was still wrapping itself around what his mother had said that morning.

Lunch proved to confuse Sasuke even more than before. Assuming he would get glared away from his table again, he was headed in the direction of the soccer team when Naruto called after him.

"What, ditching us again for those jocks?" He laughed good-naturedly, considering he played midfielder. "Sit down already."

To his surprise, Sakura scoot over and granted him a spot at the edge of the table. Sasuke slid onto the bench at her side. She turned to him and smiled prettily.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you yesterday," she said calmly. "I meant everything I said, but can we be friends again?"

The rest of the table waited on baited breath to hear Sasuke's response, even though Sasuke knew deep down that it was he who should be apologizing. Much as he wanted to yell, _No! Go back to loving me,_ he decided it was best to get on her good side, so he took the offer.

"Of course."

From then on, Sasuke was back in Sakura's good graces. She smiled and chatted nonchalantly with him at lunch, and laughed and made jokes and superficial conversation with Ino and Hinata. But good to her word, she didn't fawn over him, or look at him and sigh pleasantly, or make any special comments intended for just him to hear, like she usually did. It bothered him, in fact, just how empty she seemed to be today; usually she liked to talk about something more interesting than makeup. Even worse, though, was how much more painfully aware Sasuke was of his own body: how close they were sitting and the gentle grinding in his stomach every time he saw her smile. At one point his knee brushed hers under the table and though Sakura gave no indication of having noticed or been bothered, the mere touch visibly unnerved Sasuke. Even worse, Naruto noticed and gave him a weird look, but for once wisely said nothing. After that he found it impossible to relax and excused himself early from the need to dump his books off in his locker and in annoyance that Sakura wasn't paying more attention to him.

The rest of the day was more of the same. Sakura said nothing to him beyond politeness or the context of the conversation, but she was cordial, which was better than yelling. By the time soccer practice rolled around, Sasuke's frustration had cooled to weariness and for the time being he pushed it to the back of his mind.

Gai-sensei was true to his word and made Sasuke run as punishment for missing so much practice. While all the other boys had cleaned up the field and gone in for showers, Sasuke ran lap after lap around the track. Sometimes Gai took it upon himself to chase Sasuke when he wasn't going fast enough, but even that was better than leaving Sasuke to his thoughts.

_"Liar."_

He couldn't get it out of his head. How could he make her believe him?

"Uchiha! You've gone six miles already. Go home!"

Dead dog tired and glad it was a Friday, Sasuke limped to the locker room. However, he was surprised to see a small crowd of people waiting for him at the door.

"Little Cousin!"

If he wasn't still panting, Sasuke would have gasped in horror. Not only was Obito leaning against the wall, but he was surrounded by Itachi, his mother who was holding Sakura by the arm, and the entire soccer team.

His mother in particular was looking at him with lightning in her eyes. "Uchiha Sasuke," she hissed venomously. "I _thought_ I told you to apologize to Inuzuka-kun today."

Everyone except Obito cowered. The rest of the soccer team, suddenly not so eager to see Sasuke publically reprimanded, tried to inch back into the locker room. Sakura threw him an apologetic look as Mikoto tossed her aside a little more harshly than she probably intended to and snatched up her son by the back of his shirt. She yanked him up and spun him around to face Kiba, who was backed up against the wall and left for dead by the rest of his teammates, who had taken refuge under the bleachers.

Mikoto dropped Sasuke to his knees in front of Kiba (which was quite a feat, considering how Sasuke was about eight inches taller than his mother) and pulled him back up firmly by the ear.

"Now, Sas-cakes, honey," she demanded icily, "Apologize."

Sasuke's eyes flit to Sakura, who was standing awkwardly off to the side. She looked genuinely sorry for him, but was obviously smarter than to intervene.

"Now!"

"I'm sorry, Kiba," mumbled Sasuke, keeping his eyes defiantly towards the ground in an effort to preserve his dignity. It didn't work. His mother grabbed his cheek and pulled his face up hard, pinching his face and forcing him to look at the Kiba's bandaged face.

"Let's try that one more time, Sasuke."

"I'm- sorry- Kiba!" Sasuke managed to spit out, despite the fact that he couldn't move half the muscles on his face.

"And in the future you'll handle conflicts with maturity and dignity."

"And-in-the-future-" Sasuke's eyes were beginning to tear from the sheer strain of having one side of his face being pulled to the left. "I-will handle- conflicts-with-dignity-and-grace!"

Sasuke was given merciful release as his mother let go of his face. "Good boy. Go get your things." Humiliated and ashamed, Sasuke bolted to the locker room and grabbed his stuff at top speed, not bothering to change out of his sweaty practice clothes. He knew better than to keep his mother waiting.

When he got out, most of the soccer team had dissolved and Mikoto was giving Kiba her number so that the Uchihas could front the medical bill. She had Sakura by the arm again, and Obito was making small talk with Naruto and Neji, who smirked and muttered "Sauce-cakes," as he passed.

"Into the car!" barked Mikoto when she realized her son was ready to go. She grabbed Sasuke's wrist and dragged him and Sakura to her car. Obito crawled in behind Sasuke, squishing him into the middle. Itachi got to ride shotgun. _Lucky bastard._

"Ok, everyone, what kind of pizza do you want?" asked Mikoto as she pulled out of the school parking lot. "I'm going out and I don't feel like cooking for all of you."

"Anchovies!" yelled Obito.

"Let's ditch the pizza and just get crazy bread," drawled Itachi.

"All of us?" inquired Sasuke.

"Ayame-chan asked me to let Sakura stay over this weekend. She and Haruno-kun are going out of town."

"I'm not eight years old," huffed Sakura to nobody in particular. "I can't take care of myself."

Mikoto swooped in for the rescue. "Sakura, since you are our guest, what would you like on the pizza?" Obito pouted.

"Olives." Her eyes flit to Sasuke, who unconsciously bit his lip. "And tomatoes."

"Very well," said Mikoto with a smile, pulling up to Little Caesar's and parking the car. "Itachi, come help me get the pizzas if you want your crazy bread." Obito leaped out of the car to follow closely behind his aunt and Itachi grunted and stalked out of the car a few minutes later, leaving Sakura and Sasuke alone in the car.

"Thanks," said Sasuke graciously.

"Hmph. I know you like tomatoes."

"I'm glad you remembered."

"…You smell like a lawnmower."

Having no comeback, Sasuke leaned back in his seat and said nothing until they got home.

They ended up getting two pizzas and three side orders of crazy bread because Itachi refused to eat anything else. Mikoto dumped the pizzas on the table and left the four to their own devices while she left to meet her husband at a nicer restaurant across town. It would have been a very awkward meal if not for Obito talking just to hear his own voice, because Sakura was still in a bad mood and Itachi brooded over his bread in the corner as usual. Not three seconds after all the food was devoured did Obito declare that he was bored and was going to call an old friend to hang out. He ushered his cousins and Sakura into Sasuke's room and forced them to sit on the floor in a circle reminiscent of kindergarteners.

"Ok. While we're waiting for my buddy to get here, we're going to play a game," said Obito with a devious smile. From seemingly nowhere he produced a worn-looking glass Fanta bottle and placed it on the floor. "Spin the bottle truth or dare. I used to play this all the time when I was in high school. It's going to be great!" Before anyone could voice an objection, he tossed the bottle into a spin.

It landed on Itachi.

"Itachi-chan, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Only wussies pick truth. I dare you to put on the hat my mom sent you for Christmas."

Itachi hissed like a vampire being force-fed garlic. "No way!"

"Do it or the next dare will be worse!"

"I picked truth!"

"Well I don't give a shit!"

"Fine!" Itachi stalked off and returned a few minutes later wearing a Mickey Mouse eared cap with his usual death metal blacks.

"Ok, now you spin and whoever it lands on, you get to ask truth or dare."

Scowling, Itachi flicked the bottle. This time it pointed towards Sakura.

"Sakura. Truth or dare."

"Dare!" she said adventurously. "Lay it on! I'm ready for anything!"

"Kiss Sasuke."

Sasuke blushed. _I should have seen that one coming._ Sakura, meanwhile, paled and scooted slightly away from him. Itachi smirked wickedly. "And none of that peck on the cheek crap. You have to put your tongue in his mouth."

"Oh! Bite his lip!" suggested Obito, barely able to contain his enthusiasm.

"What he said," Itachi finished.

"I'll get the handcuffs!" Before he could blink, Itachi had Sasuke pinned against the bedpost and Obito was fiddling with a pair of handcuffs that he seemed to have produced out of thin air. Against the two of them together Sasuke was powerless and even though he managed to place a good kick to Itachi's jaw, they managed to cuff his hands behind him so that he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the metal frame of the bed.

"He's all yours," droned Itachi, satisfied to see Sasuke's mobility restricted. "Well, go on Sakura. You did pick dare, after all." Itachi leaned against the wall leisurely to enjoy the show. Obito, on the other hand, was so giddy with excitement that he could barely sit still.

Sakura looked at Sasuke, who did all in his power to look as appealing as he could without Itachi or Obito noticing. It wasn't like he wasn't going to enjoy this. Sakura grimaced, but then furrowed her brow in determination. She crawled over to his side on her hands and knees and brought her face in close to his. For a second their eyes met, and he realized that he had forgotten how green her eyes were, like grass. Without warning she pushed her lips up against his. The momentum slammed his head back against the metal foot post, but he was too busy trying to get the hang of kissing her that he barely noticed. After a second she started to French kiss him, true to the dare. His mind went blank with the warm, wet sensation that was taking over him, but in his haze he observed that she tasted like tomatoes. He tried to participate but she was too bossy, moving her mouth against the motion of his whenever he made any headway. He had almost succeeded in turning the tables on her when suddenly she bit down hard on his lower lip and pulled away to reclaim her mouth while he tasted blood in his. As fast as she could, she scooted away from the bed and wiped her sleeve over her mouth, looking at him with unconcealed annoyance.In all honesty, Sasuke had never been more turned on.

Itachi and Obito were laughing their asses off.

"Dude! You two really need to learn how to kiss!" hooted Itachi, who looked more animated than Sasuke had seen him in years.

"Yeah, more pucker and less slobber, Little Cousin!" snickered Obito, almost to the point of tears.

"Man, I thought you'd be better at that. We figured you guys had been kissing each other for years."

"What would make you think that?" demanded Sakura.

"Don't tell me you actually _study_ every time you come over after school."

"Of course," she sniffed.

"I always figured you were just using it as an excuse to make out with Sasuke on his bed," explained Itachi. "I never thought my little brother was such a loser to never have made a move on you." Sasuke flushed even more, if that was possible, and stared at his feet. Until recently, it never _had _occurred to him. "God, even Mom and Dad think so-"

"Sasuke. Truth or dare," interrupted Sakura.

"Dare," he mumbled, getting the distinct impression that the truth option was out of the question.

For the first time that night, she smiled. "I dare you to let me give you a makeover."

**End Notes: The longest chapter so far. Itachi is a picky eater in my fic, as a character quirk. And the though **_**had**_** occurred to Sakura. We get to meet Obito's friends in the next chapter, I promise. narrows eyes I hope you all saw the kiss coming the second Obito said "truth or dare." ****Hope your fluff quota has been filled for today. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: This chapter goes out to 0milica0, who always leaves me great reviews. Although all of my reviewers are so wonderful! Thank you! And yes, I am a girl. I don't think I've encountered any guys writing fan fiction. And don't ****worry;**** things will**** turn up for our young hero boy.**** I noted this in the first chapter, but I'****d like to reiterate it: a lot**** of the things that happen to the characters in this story have actually happened to me or my friends. For example, my cross country coach used to chase me when I wasn't going fast enough, and I actually had a friend blow ****boba**** into my hair w****ith a straw and spy on me while I was on**** a date with another guy (although not on the same occasion). Even Sasuke getting a ticket from his dad is based on true events- I guess what I'm trying to say is that life is funny, so don't cry about it; laugh and enjoy it. **

The List

Slowly, Sakura unzipped her cosmetic bag. "I brought this just in case something like this came up," she exclaimed. "You don't know how long I've wanted to do this!" She turned the bag upside down and dumped its contents out onto the floor.

Sasuke struggled vainly against the handcuffs that held him tethered to his bed.

"Ok, the game's off. I want to help you," Obito said, playing with a kabuki brush. "Can we put this pink stuff on him?"

"Not yet!" snapped Sakura. "There is a proper order to this!" She rummaged around until she found a pair of lethal-looking tweezers. "We will start with _these_. Hold still, Sasuke." With surgical precision, she carefully pressed the tweezers to his eyebrows. "You might want to close your eyes." She quickly withdrew her hand and Sasuke felt a pinprick of pain above his eye.

"That wasn't so bad," he sighed, relieved.

Sakura smiled. "You must have a reasonably high pain threshold. For a boy, anyway. That, and I've gotten good at doing eyebrows." She leaned in again and carefully shaped both of his eyebrows. When she found her work satisfactory, she ordered, "Tobi-san. Hand me the foundation. Now the fun begins."

He barely had time to clamp his eyes shut before she attacked him with a sponge. She wiped it all over his face, up on his forehead into his hairline, and down under his jaw. "You have such clear skin…" he heard her mutter. "I'm so jealous." He felt something poke his eye. "Relax!"

Pushing his pride aside, Sasuke did he best to hold his eyelids shut naturally.

"Tobi-san, peony petal or sparkles?"

"Oh! Sparkles! Definitely sparkles!"

"Sparkles it is then." Sasuke felt something brush gently over his eyes, first a general wipe, then more area-specific. The tickling made his eyes tear up slightly, but Sakura swiped them with the pad of her thumb as she worked. "That happens sometimes. Tobi-san, eyeliner."

The eyeliner was a little different; it felt more like taking an pencil to the face which, once he thought about it, was essentially what was going on. In slow, thin strokes she dragged the pencil from the inside to the outside of his eyelids. Then gently she swiped her finger across to blend. "Open you eyes," she commanded, "but not all the way. And open your mouth."

Sasuke did as he was told. "It's for mascara," she explained. "Hold very still." She carefully scraped the wand across the bottom of his eyelashes. "Keeping your mouth open helps."

She handed Obito the blush and let him spatter it haphazardly over Sasuke's cheeks. As soon as he was done, the doorbell rang. "That must be my BFF! I'll be right back!" shouted Obito as he jumped up and ran downstairs. Sakura paid no heed as she ran her hand through her selection of lip colors before plucking up a tube labeled "Dusty Rose."

"Ok, pucker up," said Sakura. Not waiting for him to do it, she sloshed the gloss-covered stick over his lips. "So cute!"

"Hey everyone! Meet my best friend from high school, Hakate Kakashi!"

Sasuke and Sakura looked up. His jaw dropped and she let the lip gloss wand fall to the floor. "Ka-kakashi sensei?" Sakura sputtered.

"Well, this is awkward." Their math teacher surveyed the scene and raised an eyebrow. "Sasuke, Sakura, and a pair of handcuffs..." he turned to Obito. "This looks just like something out of our books, Tob."

"That's where I got the idea!"

Off in his own little corner again, Itachi snickered. Kakashi flipped open his cell phone and snapped a picture of Sasuke and Sakura, frozen in shock.

"That's one for the staff lounge." He chuckled.

"Ok everyone, let's watch a movie!" yelled Obito excitedly as he bent down to unhook Sasuke.

"Aww… I didn't get to do his hair…"

As the group headed downstairs, Sasuke stopped at the bathroom to remove his contacts. All the touching near his eyes was making them itch, and he didn't really need them to just watch movies in the living room. Rubbing his wrists, he joined the group downstairs. _Is it normal to hang out with your math teacher?_Nonetheless, he found himself squished between Sakura and Kakashi on the couch. His face was beginning to feel weird from all the makeup so he rubbed his eyes absently as Obito scrambled to pop a DVD in. The clock above the television read 10:30. From the kitchen, Itachi came in and handed everyone energy drinks, except Sakura who declined in favor of apple juice. Obito disappeared during the previews and came back later with popcorn, which was delegated to Kakashi.

"So you and Tobi-san are old friends?" Sakura asked their math teacher, amazed.

"Yup, ever since elementary school. You could say I'm a friend of the family."

"Did you know he was my cousin?" inquired Sasuke incredulously.

"Sure I did. I even knew you before you were in my class. We met at the reunion, remember?"

Sasuke didn't.

"You were a cute little kid."

"Shut up!" hissed Itachi. "The movie's starting."

Obito turned off the lights in the living room. The movie, which involved six British women in a cave, did not loan much light to the room, so after ten minutes of the film's exposition Sasuke and the others were immersed in darkness. Except for the dialogue and Kakashi's munching, there was silence. Finally the day seemed to have caught up to Sasuke, and he felt his eyelids drooping. Beside him, Sakura leaned gently against him and she started to sleep with her head on his shoulder. It was only a matter of minutes before Sasuke drifted off into darkness himself.

The sunlight was streaming in through the windows and annoying Sasuke. His neck hurt, and he felt too warm to be comfortable. He tried to roll over, but he was heavy. Reluctantly he opened his eyes.

The living room was littered with empty energy drink cans and popcorn kernels, and a pile of DVDs was sitting on the coffee table. Kakashi, Obito, and Itachi were gone, but Sakura was still with him, snoozing on top of him. Someone, presumably his mother, had tossed a blanket over the two and left them there; it would have been too much to get up and shuffle to his room anyhow. It was almost nine in the morning, and Sasuke realized that even after running six miles the day before he hadn't taken a shower since yesterday morning.

He turned slightly to observe his predicament. The hormonal teenage boy in him was quick to point out that this situation had lots of potential, although, thought Sasuke as he looked at Sakura's sleeping form, that would ruin the moment. For the first time in weeks, he felt at peace around his neighbor, and just for a little while things could be simple again. It was hard to move much because her arms were at his sides and their legs where intertwined, but carefully he sat up and lifted Sakura with him. He leaned back on his hands and watched her eyes twitched open. Green and vacant, she looked up at him for a second before smiling and tapping the tip of his nose with her finger.

"You've still got mascara on," she said quietly with an angelic smile. He blinked, and then smiled back. She blushed gently, and yawning ran her hand through his hair, almost motherly in her careless display of affection before sitting up, stretching, and sauntering into the kitchen.

Still smiling, Sasuke got up and dragged himself up the stairs to the bathroom. He glanced in the mirror at his smeared makeup and made extra sure to scrub his face extra hard in the shower. After toweling off and brushing his teeth, he felt around the counter for his contacts, but to his dismay the container was nowhere to be found, even though he distinctly remembered taking them off the night before. He threw on some clothes and walked back to his room.

"Hey Tobi, have you seen my contacts?" asked Sasuke to his cousin, who was still lounging on his cot in Sasuke's room. Sasuke looked on the beside table and in the drawers of his desk only to have them turn up nothing.

"Oh, that's something I need to talk to you about, Little Cousin."

Suspicious, Sasuke turned and look at his cousin through narrowed eyes. "Tob, did you do something with my contacts?"

Obito smiled and pulled a folded up pieced of paper from his pajama pocket. "Well, I was thinking about your problems in love last night," he started.

"Tob, where are my contacts?"

"And after meeting Sakura and seeing what a nice girl she is, I, with the help of Itachi-chan, have compiled a list."

"What does that have to do with the tea in China? Give me my contacts," snapped Sasuke, getting more and more irritated.

"Well, that's the clincher," said Obito, holding the list up to Sasuke's face. "They are safely in Itachi's possession now. The list is of things that you must do to make a girl like Sakura unequivocally and eternally yours." Obito smiled like a leering used car salesman. "You_ do_ want that, don't you?"

"Well I-" Sasuke scowled, and his eyes flit to the door, which was safely shut. "Of course I do," he growled. "You know I do, you heard what I said at the fence the other day-"

"Then in order to meet your goal, you must follow the list," countered Obito matter-of-factly. "And number one on the list is to look smart. You need glasses for this. So…"

"…no more contacts," finished Sasuke dully. He snatched the list from Obito and began to read.

_The Sasuke Sakura 4ever List- ways 4 Sasuke to attract his __tru__ love!_

_Look smart. Reasoning- Sakura is a girl who obviously values intelligence, so what better way__ to get her attention than 2 B__ the embodiment of intelligence and refinement? Solution: Glasses all the way!!!__ 3_

_Have money. Reasoning- Chicks dig the dollars. Solution: Get a job._

_Explore common interests. Reasoning- What better way to bring people together than by doing something you both enjoy? Solution- Find something in common.__ Then g__o do it._

_Drive. Reasoning- It's easier 2 take her out when you can drive (see #2). Solution- Get driver's license A.S.A.P.!!!!1_

_Do something romantic. Reasoning- It will sho__w your dedication and express UR__ feelings 2 her! Girls __liek__ that romantic stuff__ Solution- Take her to prom._

Amazed and horrified, Sasuke just stared at the list for a moment, jaw agape.

"Don't worry, Little Cousin. Tobi will help you with these things," said Obito somberly, like a soldier taking an oath. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must clean up the living room before Auntie Mikoto wakes up. What a mess we left it!" With that, Obito skipped out the door.

Resigned, Sasuke pulled out his old glasses from a box under his bed. He sighed as unfolded them and slapped them onto his face. He looked in the mirror and thought that he looked terribly reminiscent of his middle school days, before his parents allowed him to get contacts. At least this time he didn't have the braces, as depicted in the delightfully awkward pictures that his mother insisted in hanging in the hallway, saying that he looked "cute." He scowled again in the mirror, letting his dark hair hang down into his face. _Cute if you're__emo_

He could hear sounds of the house beginning to come to life downstairs, and from the smell of things, his father was making waffles. Suddenly famished, Sasuke bounded down the stairs and slide into the kitchen. Sakura was pouring syrup over her waffles and chatting with his mother over coffee while his father continued to work the waffle iron. Ever the finicky eater, Itachi was reading the paper over cheerios. When he thought no one was looking, Obito opened his mouth wide and squeezed some of the syrup in, drinking it down like liquid candy before setting it back down onto the table.

"What's with the glasses?" asked Sakura when Sasuke sat down with his plate stacked high.

Sasuke's mother raised an eyebrow. "You didn't lose your contacts, did you?" she said, annoyed. "They aren't inexpensive to replace, you know."

Sasuke shot Obito and Itachi a glare. "I felt like a change," he said darkly, cramming a forkful of waffles into his mouth to prevent having to say anything more.

Mikoto smiled. "They look good on you. Don't you think so, Sakura?"

Sakura blushed, and following Sasuke's example took a large bite out of her breakfast without meeting his eyes. Sasuke, who had been secretly hoping for a compliment from her, frowned and grabbed up the sports section of the paper. The exchange did not go unnoticed by Mikoto or Obito, the latter of whom smiled widely and interpreted it as a sign that his plan was working.

For her part, Mikoto decided it was best to change the subject. "So. What are everyone's plans for today?" she asked, looking around the room.

"I'm going to stop by my friend's shop," replied Obito. "He begged me to come visit him while I'm in town."

"Pachinko," said Itachi simply.

"Hinata-chan invited me to get boba tea with her and Neji-san in a few hours."

"Video games?" ventured Sasuke uncertainly. He hadn't made any plans this weekend, although now that he knew Sakura was going to be around Neji he grew a little tense.

"Oh no, Little Cuz. You're coming with _me_."

**End Notes: As some of you may have figured out, I have reason to believe there is some sense to the "****Obitobi****" theory floating around Naruto fandom, so Obito and ****Tobi**** are interchangeable and indeed one in the same in my story. I put some foreshadowing for the ****manga**** in here, too. And kudos to anyone who can guess which movie they're watching.**


	6. Interlude

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: This is a brief interlude, narrated by Sakura****. Less funny, but I still felt like writing it. It is not essential to the plot, so you can skip it if you want; consider it an added treat, an ****omake****, perhaps.**

Interlude

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Every Sunday after church, Mikoto-san comes over to visit Mommy and always brings Sasuke. Usually they bring ice cream, but on warm summer days like this one, they bring strawberries too. I like the strawberries even more than the ice cream, and waiting for them all day only makes them taste better after dinner. But today is a special Sunday because tomorrow I will start kindergarten.

Kindergarten, Mommy says, is a very important time. She already bought me a pretty uniform, a flippy blue skirt and a crisp white shirt. She says that we get to learn how to read and write and paint and that that there will be a special playground just for kindergarteners. But the best part is that Sasuke-kun will be in my class.

Uchiha Sasuke is pretty much the best boy ever. He lives next door to me with his mommy, his daddy, and his older brother Itachi. He is my age but a little taller than me, and doesn't look like me because he has black hair and brown eyes. He's smart and funny and strong, and we're going to get married when we're grown up.

Today I'm sitting in the living room watching TV when Mikoto-san, Itachi, and Sasuke come up the front steps of my house carrying ice cream and strawberries. My mommy lets them in and the grown ups head into the kitchen. Itachi, who is ten and really mean sometimes, comes and snatches the remote from me.

"Go play with Sasuke," he orders. "Dragonball Z is on." I try to take the remote back from him but he holds it above my head and I'm too short to grab it, even when I jump. After three jumps I give up go look for Sasuke. He is outside chasing after the soccer ball that he got for his birthday.

"Sasuke-kun, lets go play in my room!" I call.

"I don't want to. I'm playing soccer," he says with a scowl, kicking the ball away from me and then chasing after it. But I'll show him! I ran after it too, but he is a lot faster than me and soon I am out of breath. He's already across the yard and kicks the ball over to me.

"Kick it back!" he yells.

I kick, but it doesn't go very far. I run after it and try to kick it again, but I miss fall on my back. Sasuke comes running over and stands over me. His gaze is at first contemptuous, but then sympathetic as he puts his hand out to help me up. I take it and start running towards the house without letting go. "Soccer is boring. Let's play inside. He makes an annoyed "hn" sound but does not protest as I pull him up the stairs and into my room.

My room is pretty much my favorite place. Daddy painted the walls pink for me, and I have a big bed with shiny, soft gold sheets. The carpet is white, and big windows face Sasuke's house so that I can look into his yard. My dresser is where I keep all of my ribbons and jewelry and hair ties. I have a bookshelf full of lots of books that Mommy reads to me at night and a toy box full of toys, but today I want to play with ponies, so I grab them from off a the shelf near the window. I keep the yellow one for me but hand the white one with sparkly pink patches to Sasuke.

"You can play with Rina," I say as he looks at it dubiously. "She's my favorite, so be really careful."

Sasuke sits down with Rina and looked around the room, bored. "I don't like ponies," he moans, batting it over with his hand.

Privately I am hurt, but come up with an alternative suggestion. "Let's play school," I say. "I can be the teacher and you can be the student."

I expect Sasuke to sit quietly at his make-believe desk, or march off and demand to play something else. I do not anticipate him to pale and start to quiver, a prelude to the tears that begin to seep from his eyes mere seconds later. At first he tries to hide it and pretend to be tough, like when he falls down and scrapes his knee, but pretty soon he's sobbing just as hard as I ever do when I hurt myself. Perplexed and alarmed, I rush to his side.

"Sasuke-kun! What's wrong?" I say, trying to get him to lift his head up and look at me.

"I- don't- want- to- start- kinder- garten!" he says, taking deep breaths while he continues to cry. His chest is heaving and his face is still buried in his sleeve. Suddenly unsure, I reach out to touch his arm and he lets me. I scoot closer to him as his sobs turn to sniffles and ragged breathing. Eventually he turns his face to me. His eyes are red and his hair is sticking to the wetness on his face, which is etched with fear and embarrassment. My appetite to play school is extinguished with furrowing of his brow.

"Why not?" I ask as gently as I can manage, trying to channel Mommy's way of talking when I feel upset. "My mommy says it will be a lot of fun."

"But it's scary!" he almost shouts, and for a second I am afraid he will cry again. "I won't get to see _my_ mommy all day and Aniki said that the other kids are mean. What if they don't like me?" He is down to hiccupping pathetically now, and wiping at his streaked eyes.

He brings up some valid points that I had not thought of before, causing me to grow a little nervous. "I'm going to be in your class," I reply more confidently than I feel. "And _I_ like you, so you don't need to worry." And it's true; I like him better than almost anyone else in the world. Feeling that the time is right, I fling my arms around him and for once he doesn't struggle.

"You… promise?" he says weakly.

"Promise!" I say with an enthusiastic nod. "But… since you're bigger than me, if there are mean kids you have to protect me, ok?"

"Ok," he says. For a moment we just stand there, and I feel his hair underneath my cheeks. It's soft and smells like grass.

At about that moment Itachi barges in through the door. "Sakura, Sasuke, dinner's ready," he says. His eyes narrow with mirth like a cat who has spied a mouse. "Hugging your _girlfriend_, Sasuke? Are you going to get _married_? Are you going to invite me to the wedding?" he taunts mercilessly.

"As a matter of fact we are!" I yell, letting go of Sasuke and marching right up to Itachi, who cocks his eyebrows and feigns surprise. "And if you're going to be mean then you can't come! So there!" I turn on my heel and stride regally out the door. Sasuke runs to follow me, and Itachi walks behind him, shutting the door in his wake. That night we sit on the porch and eat ice cream with strawberries in it, and Sasuke gives me the rest of his strawberries when he doesn't want anymore.

The next morning, I get all dressed up in my new clothes and Mommy takes me to school. It's a little intimidating, walking around next to all those big kids like Itachi, but Mommy says that I won't see him very often because he has a different recess than me. We get to the classroom and it feels like a whole swarm of butterflies has been set free in my stomach, but I still go in. A nice looking lady comes up to Mommy and me.

"Good morning," she says brightly. "You must be Haruno-chan. I'm Kurenai-sensei. How about you take a seat on the rug by Yamanaka-chan?" Even though I am nervous, I give a conciliatory smile and do as she says. I turn back and wave to Mommy, who flashes me a big smile and heads out the door.

I sit down next to a pretty blonde girl who turns to me and smile. "Hi," she says. "I'm Ino, what's your name?" By the end of the day I will have learned that Ino's favorite color is purple and that her mom runs a flower shop, but for now I just give her my name and say hi.

A few minutes later, the door opens again and this time it's Mikoto-san with Sasuke. He's not crying last night, but his eyes are lowered and I can see he is trying not to shake as he looks around the large classroom. He looks scared, so I decide to make good on my promise. I get up and run towards him. He still looks scared, so I lean in and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Let's go, Sasuke-kun!" I say hurriedly, snatching his hand and pulling him towards the rug with Ino-chan. I could feel Mikoto-san smiling behind me, even though I couldn't see her.

And so, with tears and hesitant steps, we started kindergarten hand in hand.

**End Notes:**** Sakura is totally into My Little Ponies. No joke. I love writing Sakura, a character that I can relate to a lot on a personal level. I hope you enjoyed this; depending on the**** response I might write another anecdote from Sakura's point of view. Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author'****s Notes: In my mind**** this chapter is the start of something new for H****ero Boy and the beginning of another "arc" of the story, if you will. ****As for Sasuke wearing glasses, search it on ****Deviantart****. Imagine a nice**** pair of horn-rimmed ****emo**** glasses**** and ****there you have my vision of him- handsome, no?**

The Bucket Boy

_I hate the bus,_ thought Sasuke as he held onto the overhead rail. That morning after breakfast, Sakura had gotten in her car and headed to Hinata's while Obito dragged him to the bus stop. It was crowed, full of loud, smelly people and he had had to give up his seat for a pregnant lady five minutes into the trip. Obito seemed bent on making the woman a friend for life, and the two were chatting amiably about gestational diabetes, or something health-related. He would have to ask Sakura later, she knew all about that stuff.

When the bus stopped downtown a few blocks away from city hall, Obito excused himself and wrangled Sasuke from the overhead rail. "This is our stop," he said brightly, stepping off onto the sidewalk. It was near midday, and business was in full bloom downtown. All around them, lawyers walked to and from their lunch breaks, shoppers trotted from one sale to the next, and people in transit shoved passed the occasional tourist with camera in tote. Obito waltzed up to a street vendor and bought two hot dogs, one of which he handed to Sasuke. The two ate as they walked, and occasionally Obito would ask about a building or monument so Sasuke would tell him as much as he knew. After a few blocks they moved into more of a shopping district, and Obito suddenly stopped. Sasuke almost knocked into him.

"This is the place," said Obito, looking up at the sign above the shop that read _Daybreak Car Rental._ There was an alley down the left side of the building, and a parking garage in the back. Taking Sasuke's sleeve, Obito marched in through the front door, which gave a little jingle when they entered. It was the weirdest office Sasuke had ever seen. The walls were covered not only with pictures of expensive, shiny cars, but of origami paper cranes that was hung like streamer from the ceiling.

"Pein? Pein, are you in here?" Obito yelled to the empty office. He ran up to the front desk and tapped the silver service bell. "Konan?"

"God, shut up, I'm coming," called a voice from within. A few seconds later, a red haired man with many facial piercings appeared, wiping his hands with a towel. "What do you- Tobi? Is that you, dude? Hey, great to see you!" The man smiled broadly, dropped the towel, and called "Konan! It's Tobi!"

The woman that emerged could not have been more different from the man. Her face was devoid of holes, and she was dressed like an office secretary with clean cut clothing and precise makeup. A flower in her hair topped off her professional look. Her face also brightened when she saw Obito.

"Tobi! Long time no see! Come on back to the lounge, I was just going to pick up some lunch, does Chinese work for you?" She turned her head to look at Sasuke. "And who is this handsome young man?" she said, and reached over and pinched Sasuke's cheek. "He's so cute!" She gave him an affectionate pat on the head and trotted out the door.

"This is my little cousin," said Obito as the man called Pein lead them behind the counter and through the door into a smaller room with a more casual feel than in the front office. There were couches and a table, a big refrigerator in one corner and a television on the counter.

"So what brings you to this part of town, Tob?" asked Pein, producing three water bottles from the fridge.

"I'm visiting the family," said Obito, taking a swig of water. "And I decided to stop by. That, and I have a proposition for you."

"Oh? Do tell," said Pein. "Konan should be back any minute, the Chinese place is just around the corner."

"Well, my little cousin here is looking for a job," said Obito, whapping Sasuke on the shoulder in a brotherly fashion. "I was thinking maybe he could help you around the office or something on the weekends, or wash cars or something. He's a good kid."

Sasuke almost raised his voice to protest, but then he remembered what Obito had said to him that morning. _The list is of things that you must do to make a girl like Sakura unequivocally and eternally yours- You do want that, don't you?_ It still annoyed him that his cousin was butting into his personal life, _but then_, thought Sasuke, _nothing I'm doing is working._ Reluctantly he kept his mouth shut.

The bell jingled, and a few seconds later Konan stumbled in, arms laden with bags of to-go boxes. "What've I missed?"

Pein served up the food and filled Konan in on Obito's offer. "You're Itachi's little brother, right?" she said when he was done. "Do you have your driver's license yet, Sasuke?"

"We're working on that," chimed Obito brightly. "His behind the wheel test is next week."

"Since when?" asked Sasuke, surprised. "Tob, you need to tell me when you do this sort of-"

"Remember the list," Obito said, cutting him off. "He'll be legit soon."

"Sure, I guess we could give him a job," said Pein between mouthfuls. "You look like a nice kid."

"Why do you want a job?" asked Konan, tilting her head to one side.

"I-"

"Well, it all started," interrupted Obito, "With a girl."

Pein's interest peaked and Konan giggled. "A girl? Is this a love story? I _love_ love stories!"

"A very special girl named Sakura."

"So are you trying to get money to take her out?" asked Konan excitedly. "Or is she more of a jewelry type of girl? Even if she isn't, white gold is always tasteful-"

"Not exactly," replied Sasuke, pushing his glasses up as they began to fall down his face.

"He's lost her love, and now he's trying to win her back!" yelled Obito triumphantly, launching into how Sasuke's attempt to declare is love at the fence culminated in his public embarrassment by his mother to the slumber-party like events of the night before. By the end, Sasuke wanted to become invisible. Pein and Konan were laughing, of course.

"It's settled, then. You'll come in on weekends for the next few weeks, and then when soccer season ends you can start coming in after school," said Pein pleasantly. "I'll give you minimum wage and throw in a snack at the end of each shift if you want."

"It's a deal," said Sasuke flatly.

"Good. You can start tomorrow," said Pein. "Be here at eight."

After the proper goodbyes, the two Uchihas headed home. Obito was naturally very excited that his plan was coming to fruition and Sasuke couldn't help but feel satisfied as well. He doubted very much that this would help him with Sakura, but at the very least it would be nice to have some spending money. By the time they arrived home it was late afternoon, and Sasuke was already planning what he'd buy once he got his first check. He turned the key in the lock and let himself and Obito into the house. The front rooms were empty, so Sasuke assumed that Itachi was still playing his gambling games with his weird friends. Obito settled himself on the couch and flicked on the TV while Sasuke headed upstairs. When he reached the top of the hall, he was surprised to see that the lights were already on in his room, seeping out from beneath the door. He walked a little faster and walked in.

His mother was in his room, loading clean laundry into his drawers while Sakura folded his clothes.

"Sasu-cakes, you're home!" said Mikoto brightly. "I was just starting on your laundry when I noticed that you've worn through some of your jeans!" To demonstrate her point, she stuck her finger through the knee of a nearby pair of pants before folding them. Sasuke, on the other hand, was more concerned about the basket full of his clean clothes that Sakura was folding on his bed and the pair of Mickey Mouse printed boxers that were peeking out of it.

_Lucky bastard Itachi, Auntie just sen__t__ him__ the hat._ "M-mom, Sakura, you don't really need to do this," Sasuke stuttered.

Mikoto got the hint. "Ok, you can finish up, Sasuke. I've other things to attend to." With that, she took her leave, but Sakura continued right on folding with a self-satisfied little smile on her face.

"I didn't know you didn't do your own laundry," she said lightly, setting his folded soccer shorts onto the bed. "I've been doing mine since middle school. Does your mom still pick out your clothes, too?"

Sasuke flushed, and sat beside her to fold his clothes. Why did she have to be so astute? Itachi picked out his own clothes, but then, he had a job and paid for them himself, not to mention they sucked in Sasuke's opinion. His mother had said that he could buy his own clothes if he could pay for them, but then he had never had any objections to what she picked. Mikoto always knew his size and somehow had an idea of what was in style for boys to wear, not that he cared.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Sakura went on, "I mean, Hinata picks out all of Naruto's clothes, and hasn't he been looking sharp lately?" Sasuke averted his eyes and made a sly grab for the Mickey Mouse boxers. Sakura got to them first.

As she held them up by the hem and smiled. "I didn't know you were into… cute things, Sasuke," she said. Her tone was neither condescending nor sarcastic; but in being nice she only managed to make him feel younger than he was, which embarrassed him more. Annoyed, he snatched them from her and folded them himself, then scooped up the remainder of his clothes and crammed them into his closet.

"There's no need to be embarrassed, Sasuke. I folded some your tidy whiteys earlier," she giggled from her perch on the bed. _Somebody kill me now._

The rest of the evening passed without incident. Sakura's parents arrived home from their trip, so around nine o'clock she bid her farewells and home. Sasuke was relieved to see her go because her presence made him so acutely aware of the developing fluttering in his stomach whenever she was around, but, he thought that night as he watched Obito fall asleep on his cot, he had grown accustomed to her presence. The house wasn't the same without her. Rolling over, Sasuke took on last look out the window at the moon rising over the Haruno's chimney before he drifted into a mellow sleep.

What seemed like mere minutes later, Sasuke was jerked awake with the creaking sensation of being tossed from side to side.

"Wake!" Creak. "Up!" Creak. "Little!" Thwam. "Cousin!" Sasuke ventured to open his eyes as he was flopped from side to side as though on a trampoline. Obito was jumping at the foot of his bed, his spiked hair brushing the ceiling with every bound. "Time to go to work!"

Sasuke scowled, but sure enough he found himself on a bus headed downtown within the hour. When he got to Daybreak Car Rental, the sun was barely up over the mountains that framed the city.

"Oh good, you're here. Head on out back," said Konan distractedly as she ushered him through the building and outside. "Pein is busy taking care of our early morning customers, so Hidan will tell you what to do." With that, she shoved him into the back alley where a slick-haired man was standing over a dirt covered Chevy Aveo.

"You!" he shouted, noticing Sasuke instantly. "Are you the little shit that's going to do my grunt work around here?" Sasuke nodded. Hidan shoved a bucket filled with soap and washcloths. "You're on washing duty until noon. Go."

Resigned, Sasuke started in on washing the Chevy. When he was done, Hidan moved it into the parking garage and brought out another, a brown minivan this time. After the fourth car, the sun was fully risen and beat down on Sasuke, who had began to work up a sweat. Panting, he wiped his brow as Hidan drove up in a Volkswagen. "You didn't think this job would be f-cking easy, did you?" he said with a vicious smile.

Although it was menial work, Sasuke managed to learn a whole lot more about the company before lunchtime. The car rental place had a lot more business than he initially thought, and it was important to company policy that the cars be spotless. Not only that, but Daybreak also rented limos to their more entrepreneur clients, two of which Sasuke had the pleasure of washing. He also gleaned that Hidan's bark was worse than his bite, because even though he had taken to calling Sasuke "Shithead" he gave him a bottle of water around ten thirty and told him that the car windows had never looked cleaner. When Konan came out to fetch him at noon, Sasuke had washed nearly twenty cars.

"I hope you like tuna," she said to him, handing him a long subway-style sandwich. "Come on in after you're done eating. I've got some filing for you to do."

Sasuke scarfed down the sandwich and headed inside, where Konan gave him a stack fill of papers to sort based on requests for different colors of cars. It was a mindless task, and when he was done she put him to work taking messages for Pein. Finally, four o'clock rolled around and Konan came into the back office where she had positioned Sasuke at the phone.

"Nice job today, kid. You can go home now. Say hi to Itachi for Pein and I, okay?"

Thoroughly exhausted, Sasuke dragged himself to the bus stop and headed home. He felt grimy and he was sure he must smell like dried sweat, but Konan had also handed him fifty dollars as he headed out the door. "That's a little less than minimum wage," she said, "so I owe you ten after taxes. See you next weekend." Having a little money in his pocket made Sasuke smirk to himself. It was worth it. When he got home he went straight to the shower, and then after dinner he went right to bed, not even giving Obito enough time to bother him about his day.

_Two down, three to go._

**End Notes:**** There is a lot of business in this chapter, as we call it in theatre. However, it is necessary for what I've got planned. The next few chapters will be more interesting. Switching gears, there's a lot of stuff embedded in this story that I'm surprised no one has caught. For example, remember the actors that Rock Lee mentions in Chapter 1? Try ****googling**** them; you might be in for a surprise. There's other stuff too- after all, what's the Japanese word for "daybreak?" Anyhow, don't let this chapter deter you; more interesting developments are to come.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes: Congrats to any readers from Kosovo! I hear you guys declared independence from Serbia. On behalf of myself and my countrymen, I would like to wish you the best of luck in establishing your new republic.**

Something Wicked this Way Comes

When school resumed on Monday, Sasuke was surprised to find himself surrounded by gaggles of giggling girls and frightened flocks of young men, bustling through the hall with eyes all aglow in delight or anxious anticipation. The reason soon became apparent as Sasuke passed through the main hallway of the school, where a banner was strung up from the ceiling. _Parisian Paradise Prom 2008 Tickets on Sale Now!_ it read in big purple letters. The nervous grinding feeling that Sasuke got in his stomach whenever Sakura was around settle anew. He hurried to his locker and then to class trying to avoid eye contact with the opposite sex, who scoped him out with new interest.

Even his friends, whom he thought would be above such conversation, were stuck on prom. Naruto and Hinata were the first to declare their intentions to go together, prompting an entire conversation between the girls about what color dress she should purchase. (Ino was all for something fluffy and yellow; Sakura vouched for lavender.) Naruto, the epitome of a whipped boyfriend, asked Hinata what sort of flowers she would prefer while Sai doodled gowns on his notepad. Sasuke, however, was growing more frightened with each passing minute.

Prom, as he was painfully aware, was not only the climax of the year for girls, but on The List. Sasuke had only managed to complete two of the tasks; there was still the matter of getting his driver's license and doing something that they both enjoyed on top of the now critically impending dance. Fortunately for Sasuke, Obito was way ahead of him.

After soccer practice, Sasuke walked out of the locker room and was surprised to see not his mother, but Obito in the car waiting for him. Intrigued, he sat down in the passenger seat. Obito didn't wait for him to ask.

"We're headed straight to the DMV, Little Cuz!" The bottom dropped out of Sasuke's stomach. "But don't worry, I'm going to have my special friend test you!"

Where he usually would have been annoyed, Sasuke was petrified. He hadn't gotten a chance to practice behind the wheel since he got pulled over. Although the DMV was across town, to Sasuke it was all too short a drive and in no time at all Tobi had sent him up with his paperwork, then ditched him to get boba tea from a shop across the street. For once the office was nearly empty, and in no time at all a tall, blond Viking of a man came up with a clipboard in hand.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" he called. Sasuke stood up. "I'm Deidara and I'll be your examiner for today. Follow me, unn." Once they were in the car, Deidara ordered Sasuke to start the car. Hands shaking, Sasuke put the key in the ignition and twisted it. Turning over his shoulder, he carefully backed out of the parking space.

"If you hit the curb its an automatic fail, unn."

"You're Tobi's special friend?"

"If you call me that again, I'll make sure you never get on the road ever again, Uchiha."

"…Point noted."

Sasuke was careful to avoid the curb. Deidara directed him to get on one of the main roads in town, which the two drove down in silence. After a few minutes staring listlessly out the window, Deidara shifted in his seat. "Too quiet, unn," he mumbled and moved to turn on the radio to some death metal station that Itachi listened to all the time, but Sasuke had no particular fondness for. However, he actually found himself relaxing when he could forget about his quivering palms. _This isn't too hard,_ he thought. _But then, I'm not really doing anything._ At first Sasuke was glad to have an easy drive, but when they were almost out of town, he started to get suspicious. How long were they going to stay on this road?

At that moment, Deidara raised his hand to the left. "Turn here," he said. Sasuke turned left onto a shade-covered side street, off which Deidara had him turn down three more streets. "Stop the car and park it in that driveway," he said when they had arrived at a small but cosmopolitan-looking house deep in the residential area.

"Wait here," said Deidara, who got out of the car. Utterly confused, Sasuke drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. _Is this part of the test?_ He sat uncomfortably in the front seat for several minutes as cars passed by on the street behind him and pedestrians walked along the sidewalk, earnestly going out their lives.

After about ten minutes, Deidara came stumbling out of the house, arms full of a massive body-shaped bundle wrapped in dark, heavy canvas. "Pop the trunk, unn."

After the bundle was loaded, the two were on their way again, back around town to more familiar territory for Sasuke. "Turn here," commanded Deidara, finally picking up the clipboard. Sasuke smiled; he couldn't fail on these streets, this was his stomping ground.

"Turn right… now left…. Another left…"

For the first time that day, Sasuke felt himself relax completely as he turned on to his own street. Deidara, who seemed to grow more bored with each passing minute, changed the radio station again, to hip-hop this time. Leisurely, Sasuke gazed out the window as they passed his house, with its wide porch wrapping around to the back, then Sakura's house with the trees in back and, and Sakura's cat Ryuu walking across the street-

_Oh my god! She'll never forgive me if I run over her cat!_

With three feet left between him and Ryuu, Sasuke suddenly swerved to the right, hurtling towards the neighbor's trashcans. He slammed his foot down onto the brake in an attempt to stop the car- and missed, hitting the gas instead. The car screeched and Sasuke veered sharply to the right, pulling the car into a doughnut at the intersection before finally locating the break. The car jolted to a stop and the air was still with the smell of burning tires. Ryuu hopped into Haruno-san's azalea garden and disappeared.

A shaken and flustered Deidara glared at Sasuke through his long blond bangs, now disheveled. "You fail, unn! Get out of this car!" He reached over and pulled the handle to open the door.

"What about Tobi?" demanded Sasuke, alarmed. "I need to go back to the DMV-"

"I'll take the car over to him, he can drive home himself. Go home, you- you-" he couldn't seem to find words strong enough to express his annoyance. "You _menace_! Unn!" With that, he roughly shoved Sasuke down onto the asphalt and sped away.

For a second, Sasuke lay on his elbows, shocked. He had been hoping that for once Tobi's extended network of acquaintances would work in his favor, but yet again his goals were thwarted. He got up and brushed himself off and set off down the street, the suburban walk of shame. However, when he got the sidewalk, he realized that right now, he didn't want to go home. Feeling suddenly rebellious, he forsook his own house and walked up to Sakura's without a plan. He knocked and Haruno-san saw him in, pleasantly surprised at an unexpected caller. She directed him to Sakura's room.

Sasuke was careful to bang long and hard on the door this time, and waited for Sakura to open the door. Confused, she peered at him from the doorway. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke surprised himself with his own daring. "Want to go somewhere?"

"Right now?"

"Why not. Can you drive?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, but replied, "Sure, let me grab my purse…"

A few minutes later, Sasuke was sitting in the seat of Sakura's parent's car with the windows rolled down as she drove to the mall. Now that he was sitting there again, he realized how much he had missed it. Even though he and Sakura were on good terms again, she had still not resumed giving him rides. He couldn't help but feel that he had taken his position as her passenger for granted, but it was nice to be back, even just for the afternoon.

"Sasuke," asked Sakura, interrupting the sound of the wind in his hair, "why do you want to hang out all of the sudden?"

Sasuke rolled up the window so he could talk with her more clearly. "I just… I had a tough day, and…" He started to laugh, first a low chuckle, quickly growing into full, resonating laughter, like nothing he had done in a long time.

"What's so funny?" asked Sakura, alarmed.

"I failed my driver's test," he said simply, and smiled at her. Pretty soon she was laughing too.

It was just that time of day when the mall is fairly empty, although people were beginning to trickle in for evening shopping. Sasuke sprung for drinks, and he and Sakura strolled pleasantly to the other side of the mall towards the bookstore while Sasuke, in one of his rare garrulous moods, told Sakura all about the driving test.

"Well, thanks for not hitting my cat, anyhow. I'm very attached to him, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Sasuke secretly had a soft spot for cats, and was prone to petting Ryuu when he passed through the yard on the hunt for renegade mice. "Remember when we found him?"

"Sasuke, um… sorry to change the topic, but… why are you here?" She didn't say "with me," but Sasuke caught what lurked beneath her carefully composed question.

They had reached the bookstore now, but Sasuke stopped walking, surprised by her question.. _Because I wanted to see yo__u.__Because I want to ask you to prom.__ Because you haven't been__ talking to me like you used to!_His mind was more eloquent than this mouth. "Because… we haven't done this in a while, and… well, I like books, and you like books, so- didn't the latest edition of _Jump_ come out yesterday?"

Sakura gave him an odd look. In response Sasuke pulled the door open and ushered her inside. He had not been lying when he said that he enjoyed books, and the familiar feeling of contentedness he got from being surrounded by them came over him. Sakura also relaxed, his awkward moment forgotten. She almost ran over to the comic section and grabbed the new issue of _Jump_ from off the wall. Sasuke followed behind her, but got sidetracked in the science fiction section (another thing he secretly had a soft spot for). After a few minutes, Sakura dragged him to the teen fiction section.

"It's a good thing I brought money," she said, plucking a newly-bound paperback off the shelf. "Hold this…" She shoved the book at him, and picked up another by the same author. "Hmm… do you think I should get the sequel?"

"See if you enjoy the first," replied Sasuke, eyeing the cover. "Is it a series?"

"Yeah, Ino's been trying to get me to read them for months. It's about a girl who falls in love with a vampire, and-"

"Lame. Why is there an apple on the cover?"

"Oh, you're no fun," she joked, giving him a good-natured punch in the arm. "Ok, I'll settle for just the first one right now. What about this one?"

"It's great if you like books about killing God. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's got literary merit, but-"

"You sound like a book critic. We're getting it." She gave the book for Sasuke to hold with the first.

By the time Sasuke felt ready to go home, Sakura had a bag full of three new books to read, plus her weekly comic plug. Sasuke decided not to indulge himself, but Sakura swore that once she was done with it, she'd make him read the book about the vampire. As he was standing to get out of the car she ruffled his hair affectionately like she had the morning they had woke up on the couch, an act that had Sasuke walking on air all the way back to his house. Obito, however, was not amused.

"I can't believe you didn't pass the test!" he yelled, following Sasuke up the hall to his room. "Deidara-senpai was so disturbed with your driving that he almost didn't give me my telescope back?"

"What?"

"My telescope. I let him borrow it and he returned it."

_That must have been the package_. "Whatever."

"Forget that, there are more important things I need to talk to you about, Little Cousin. Sit down."

By now they were in his room. Sasuke flopped down on the bed, noting that there was now a telescope set up by Tobi's cot. "What's up?"

"Little Cousin, your brother and I have decided it's time you became a man."

**End Notes: Once again, it may seem that this chapter lacks importance, but there is more to it than meets the eye and it acts as a g****ood prelude to what I have planned next.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Author's Notes****: This chapter is a monster, but I couldn't bear to trim it down and part with any section of it. It all belongs here, and I began to write it the night I posted the last one. It had been bouncing around my head for even longer than that, and I think it's my favorite chapter so far**** (after Chapter2)****. So be afraid- be very afraid. Also, congrats to everyone who picked up on the **_**Twilight**_** reference last chapter. I loves me an Edward!**

The Quest

Obediently, Sasuke sat down on the bed, prepared for a lecture.

"Be here tomorrow by six, ok?" demanded Obito dramatically. "I'm making plans."

"O…k…That's it? That's all I have to do?"

Despite Sasuke's pestering, Obito said no more about "becoming a man" that evening. In fact, he seemed to be much more quiet than usual, and shut himself in Itachi's room and made hushed phone calls all night. Sasuke decided that it was nothing to loose sleep over.

Unfortunately, nature had other plans. The next morning, Sasuke woke up with a stuffed nose and a scratchy throat. However, since he could still walk his mother deemed him healthy enough to go to school, so he meandered out of bed and into the shower. For once it paid off that he didn't have his contacts, because his eyes were itching and tearing up randomly as he put his glasses on and hopped in the car.

The school day turned out to be a lot like the day before, only worse. In addition to the buzz about prom, more couples had committed themselves to dates and still others were becoming more vocal about their prospective companions. It was also the last day of the soccer season, and the team would have its last practice that afternoon. Sasuke knew that within a week's time he would be counting down the days until next year's tryouts, but in the meantime he was at least cheered to think that he would be able to spend more time on the job. So Sasuke sniffed and sneezed through is day with the consolation of making more money by the end of the week. He had made up his mind that the sooner he asked Sakura to prom the better, so he kept her at arm's length during break and lunch.

Even though he was feeling under the weather, Sasuke managed to get through his school day just fine until fifth period- English. Kempetai-sensei, the foreigner teacher, had assigned a project the day prior and led the class to library for research, where she let her students loose. Sasuke, who tended to enjoy English, was more than pleased with independent study, but was even more pleased to see that Sakura's fifth period biology class had also converged on the library for research.

Sakura was already seated and pouring over a book about the anatomy of the human heart when Sasuke snatched up the seat beside her, slamming down his book on Shakespeare down on the table loudly.

"Quiet we are be in library!" called Kempetai-sensei in her broken Japanese. "We are be rule important!"

The two snickered quietly. Sasuke decided to move in for the kill.

"Sakura, are you going to prom?"

The smile slipped off Sakura's face, replaced by the unreadable pout that she took on sometimes. His stomach threatened to blow up. She opened her mouth but before she answered, someone else popped out from behind the shelves and joined them at the table.

"Sasuke-san!"

It was Karin. Sasuke barely suppressed a groan and Sakura's face was etched with annoyance. The red-headed, bespectacled girl had totally thrown him off track, and whenever she was around, Sasuke got the distinct feeling that he was being eyed like a hungry cat watches a mouse.

"Imagine finding you here," continued Karin perkily. She plopped her books on the table and sat down next to Sasuke.

"Afternoon, Uchiha-san," came a voice following behind Karin. "Mind if I join the table?" Without waiting for an answer, Suigetsu, a boy Sasuke recognized for his sharp teeth and sarcasm skills that surpassed his own, sat down opposite Sakura and tossed her a toothy smile. "So what are you two doing in the library this time of day, Sakura-san?"

"Studying," said Sakura politely without looking up from her book, suddenly trying to ignore everyone around her.

"And you, Uchiha-san?" It was another voice, this time from the school's resident giant, Juugo. _Gr__eat. A__nother freak_ "You have Shakespeare, don't you?"

"Hn."

Juugo took a seat and pushed a book across the table. "I checked this one out a week ago about Christopher Marlow, but I'm done with it. Perhaps it will be a help to you."

Pleasantly surprised, Sasuke accepted the peace offering. "Thanks."

"You know Sasuke-san, Shakespeare wrote some of the best love poems ever written," simpered Karin, who tipped her chair closer to him to peer over his shoulder. Sasuke sneezed, but even his snot was not enough to deter her.

Suigetsu scoffed. "How would you know, Karin? You can't even read English."

"Shut up, Shark Boy."

"Why don't you shut up? We all know what you're trying to do, and it's not working."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you do," Suigetsu cooed maliciously. "Sasuke likes Sakura-san, doesn't he? No matter what you say or do, he's not going to take you to prom."

Next to him Sakura stiffened and Sasuke felt himself blush. He tried to bury his nose in the book and pretend that this conversation was not happening.

"This is an A and B conversation, so _C_ your way out of it, Fish Face."

"Last I remember, it was you who interrupted their conversation, Ice Bitch."

"What conversation?" Karin hissed. "I only heard Sasuke talking, probably to ask Sakura-san for a pencil or something."

Sasuke was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second as the conversation got nastier. He wanted to leave, but he didn't know if Sakura would follow him. (Although he had the suspicion that Karin would.) Besides, his tongue suddenly had lost all functionality. It was like a train wreck; he wanted to stop, but he couldn't quite rip his eyes and ears away.

"Not according to what Uzumaki-dumbass said a while ago. He said that Sasuke saw Sakura-san- ouch!" Sasuke kicked him under the table and glared at him. Suigetsu shot him a dirty look, but turned to Sakura with a slick grin.

"Sakura-san, would you like to study with me? I was doing the different sections of the brain and I was hoping you could help me. It's so loud over here." He stood and took Sakura's hand to lead her to a different table, but Sakura pulled her hand away. Sasuke audibly growled before he could stop himself.

"I'm fine where I am, thanks." She forced a smile, and turned away. "Maybe another time, ok?"

"Maybe it's better if you go, Sakura-san. Sasuke-san and I have things to discuss."

"Shut up already, Karin. Leave him alone," Sakura snapped.

"Oh, standing up for him now? Sasuke hasn't told me to leave yet," snarled Karin, wrapping her arm around Sasuke's. "How long is it going to take for you to get it through your huge forehead that he doesn't like you?"

To his surprise, Sasuke saw something he hadn't seen since middle school: Sakura's confidence sliding away like water through her fingers. Her expression, which she had so carefully trained to look like she was ignoring the jeers, jerked to surprise and hurt, and her eyes dropped to the floor. _But she knows it's not true!_ Sasuke knew that next in the progression would be the tears; she wouldn't want to cry but the tears would come on there own accord, as they threatened to do now. Karin's grip took on the quality of a boa constrictor.

"I mean, come on. Everyone knows he never says yes no matter how many times you ask him out, so why bother anymore? Are you so desperate that you can't take no for an answer?" Sakura could only sputter breathy, incoherent starts at a response before she was cut off. "And besides, you've always got Lee-san. Maybe you two deserve each other, did you ever think of that?"

Something in Sasuke's head snapped. He roughly wrenched his arm away from Karin, the force of his throw tipping her chair and toppling her to the floor. With the same momentum, he leaned forward, snatched Sakura's shoulders, yanked her off her chair and pulled her face into his, smushing their mouths together. Sasuke's eyes were clamped shut, but he could tell by the way Sakura didn't move that she was frozen in shock. The longer he gripped her shoulders the harder he pressed into her, a rough, frustrated kiss. After a few seconds of dead silence he ripped her away, detaching with a quietly wet smacking sound. Sasuke dropped her shoulders to the ground, swiped his books, and ran.

Fifth period did not let out for another fifteen minutes, but Sasuke did not stop at the library door. Flinging it open, he ignored Kempetai-sensei's calls ("Uchiha, to this place what you went?!") and bolted down the hall at top speed. He felt a little cowardly leaving Sakura there to be eaten alive, but then he thought,_ she's a big girl. She can take care of herself._ On the other hand, he was the one who couldn't handle anymore conversation- at least with anyone at the library. Sasuke didn't stop running when he came to the exit and slammed through the quad and into the locker room. Gai-sensei was just where Sasuke expected him to be, sitting in his office going over grade sheets for his other periods.

"Coach, I have a free period right now," Sasuke panted, making it up on the spot. "And I was thinking, since I missed so much practice last week, is there anything I could help you out with right now?" He'd scrub the showers clean, anything to escape returning to the library.

Gai-sensei was overjoyed to have a helper, and even convinced Asuma to excuse Sasuke for sixth period in the name of cleaning the pool for the swim team. He found the manual labor relaxing, and by soccer practice he had temporarily cleared his mind of all distractions, even Sakura, and concentrated on the scrimmage. It also managed to help clear out his sinuses a little bit, although he was feeling tired and achy by the end of the day.

"Great season, boys!" exclaimed Gai at the end of practice, clamping each of them on the shoulder and handing them a slice of pizza on their way out. "Consider this a treat, but don't eat too much, or you'll be sluggish next season!" The day was catching up to Sasuke, who stumbled out into the parking lot.

"Aw, poor baby," purred his mother when he got in the car. "You look miserable, Sasu-cakes." Putting her hand on his forehead, she said, "I shouldn't have sent you to school today, you're burning up." She kissed him on the cheek. "You can go right to bed when we get home, ok?" she purred.

When they arrived at the house, Sasuke went straight to the shower and changed into his flannel pajama pants with the intention of falling between his blankets immediately afterwards. Pulling on a tee shirt with the family crest on it, he fumbled with the doorknob and walked into his room to witness the strangest scene he could have imagined.

The lights were all out, and his window was open, letting the cold wind blow around his still drying hair. Outside the sky was dark and ominous with storm clouds. There were candles lit all around on his desk and shelves, giving the room a distinct vanilla scent. (Sasuke suspected that his mother's stock of tea candles had been raided.) But even odder were all the people. Obito, Itachi, Konan, Pein, Kakashi, and Deidara were all sitting serenly in a semicircle on his floor, each holding a candle.

"Welcome, Little Cousin," said Obito solemnly. "Please shut the door behind you."

Surprised, Sasuke did so. "Tobi, what the heck is going on?"

"The time has come," replied Obito, "for you to become a man. Sit." He indicated the spot in the middle of the semicircle. Six pairs of fire-lit eyes stared at him.

"Kakashi, would you care to continue?"

"Sasuke, as you know there comes at time in every boy's life when he must leave the streams of childhood behind and descend into the ocean of manhood. Your time is now." Kakashi smiled. "But of course, every transition is not without its trials."

"You have gone through many growing up," picked up Itachi. "You wet the bed until you were nine. You had to harness your crowed teeth in braces for two years, causing unimaginable suffering on your poor mouth. And your eyes were not up to snuff, so you had to get glasses, and later contacts-"

"What the hell kind of trials are those?"

"Silence! The initiate is not permitted to speak during the ceremony, unn!"

"As I was saying, your eyes suck, and now you have begun to wander the roads of first love."

Sasuke groaned and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"But in order to join the ranks of manhood, you must suffer through one more trial," continued Pein where Itachi left off.

"But," sniffed Sasuke, "I'm sick! And why is Konan here, she's a girl-"

"That's beside the point, unn."

"Little Cousin. Your manhood quest has been laid before you." Tobi stood and pointed towards the window. "You shall shimmy down the drainpipe that spans from the edge of your window to the ground, one story below us. You will then hop the fence and climb up the rose-laced trellis into the lovely Sakura's room, where you will successfully steal and return with…" Tobi took a dramatic pause and reached into the pocket of his sweatshirt. "One of these."

From his fingers dangled a silky lace bra.

Sasuke lost it. "What the f-ck is this? There is no way in HELL that I am going to sneak into Sakura's house and steal something like- like _that!_"

Konan stood up grimly. "The trials of manhood are not always easy, but all have gone through them. You will prevail."

"If you do it, I'll give you your driver's license, unn."

"And I'll give you back your contacts," offered Itachi, shacking the cleaning tube in front of Sasuke's face.

"In addition to all this gifts, you will have had attained manhood in the eyes of your family and our... prestigious organization. Uchiha Sasuke, do you accept the task that has been appointed to you?" asked Tobi seriously.

Wiping his nose, Sasuke eyed Itachi, who smirked as he put the contacts back into his pocket. Deidara already had the clipboard with the release slip for his license and held it under Sasuke's nose tantalizingly. Sasuke took a deep breath.

"…I'll do it."

The small crowd all smiled and got to their feet as Tobi wasted no time in ushering Sasuke to the window. "Your task starts when you touch the drainpipe," he said as Sasuke swung one leg out over the window sill. "Part of the deal is that you go as you are, so don't even think about putting on shoes." He tapped the telescope set up at the corner of the window. "And remember, Little Cousin, we'll be watching." With that, he gave Sasuke a push out the window.

Sasuke immediately grappled onto the drainpipe and slide down it like a fire pole, a skill he had honed since kindergarten, and sprinted across the side lawn. The fence was a little bit more difficult considering he was barefoot, but after a minute he pulled himself up and flipped over into the Haruno's yard. Now that he was in enemy territory, his pulse began to race. He ran across the lawn, jumped up onto the latticing under Sakura's window, and began to climb. Instantly he knew that this was a mistake. The wood was thinly crisscrossed and fluttered against the wall of the house, and the sharp edges from the thorns poked painfully at the bottom of his feet. He could almost hear Itachi jeering, which only inspired him to climb faster, jerking his feet away from the treacherous blooms. Her window was open. Sasuke grabbed onto the sill and hoisted himself up by the arms, leaning into her room. He lost his balance and fell on his backside, but the sound of his body making contact with carpet was music to his ears.

Brushing himself off, Sasuke stood up and took a look around the room. He had spent countless hours in here as a child, and in many aspects it had not changed. The walls were still pink, like everything associated with Sakura seemed to be, and being the neat freak that she was everything was in its place. There was a chest of drawers opposite the queen sized bed, and a big bookcase where paperbacks were double shelved after older hardback ones. A shelf of sparkly ponies was hung up. However, the room had aged gracefully; there was a small vanity table covered with cosmetics in one corner and the bedspread was a soft, plain-looking mauve color. Her cat was sleeping pleasantly on the bed and did not stir when Sasuke reached down to scratch him behind the ears.

Sasuke made it over to the drawers. His manhood quest seemed a whole lot harder now. Sure, he was aware of the sort of things that women wore. After all, he had seen his mother's underthings in the wash and thought nothing of them, and it wasn't like he hadn't occasionally noticed that sometimes Sakura wore tank tops that exposed the straps of her bra, but he had never actually held one. Cautiously, he pulled open the top drawer and peered inside.

Tee shirts. _Nothing special here._Down to the second were jeans and skirts. But when he opened the third drawer from the top, he found what he was looking for. Stunned and fascinated, Sasuke gaped at the lingerie smorgasbord that lay itself out in front of his eyes. They were not like his mother's at all. Daring to touch, he picked up the first specimen and held it up to his eyes. He fingered the pink lace inlaid over spongy white fabric. Intrigued, he dropped it back and pulled out another. This one was black and sheik, like a sports car, and so smooth to touch that his fingers caught on the delicate fabric. Now officially curious, he dropped that one away and reached blindly in for another, but just as his hand grasped a smooth, ribbon-cut strap, he heard a noise that sent chills down his spine.

"So Sakura, give me the dirt. What happened in the library?"

It was Ino and Sakura, coming up the stairs at light speed. Sasuke knew that he couldn't make it out the window in time. He clenched the bra in his fist and made a beeline for the closet just as the doorknob began to turn. Sasuke threw himself into the closet and slammed the door shut just in the nick of time, because Sakura's response was not muffled by any walls. He could hear her footsteps on the floor just feet away from him as he tried to position himself between her hanging dresses as quietly as possible.

She sighed. "Everybody keeps asking me about that, but I… I just don't know, anymore." A pause, with the sound of sliding wood. "Why is my drawer open?"

Ino made an annoyed _tsk_sound. "Then what happened to make Karin so pissy during sixth?"

He heard the bed groan with weight. "He kissed me."

"Well, what's wrong with that? I thought you liked him."

"_Like_ him?" Sakura scoffed. "Ino, it's way beyond just _liking_ him. I _liked_ him in elementary school. I think I've loved him for years now." Her voice dropped to a mournful lamentation.

Sasuke could clearly imagine the skeptical look on Ino's face. "What's the difference?"

"Ino, I want to marry him. I want to be Uchiha Sakura. I want to have his children- does three sound good to you? I always liked the idea of having three kids. I mean, imagine it for a second. They'd be tall like him with dark hair, but green eyes like mine, and- and we can live in one of those really nice Tudor-style houses outside of town. And we can have a dog and a cat, and every night I'd hold him in my arms and tell him I love him so much and he'd hold me back, Ino! He'd hold me back!" She was out of breath.

"Calm down, Sakura, I get it." A pause. "Do you have names picked out yet?"

"Daisuke, Akane, and Kyo."

_I hate the name Daisuke,_ thought Sasuke.

"Wow. You're worse than I thought. But he kissed you, right? So what are you worrying about?"

"Because so far everything he does and says seems like its done out of jealousy more than anything else."

Ino gasped. "What do you mean?

Sakura related the story of her date with Lee to Ino. Sasuke, in the dark of the closet, was interested to hear her point of view. She was very explicit on how Lee had been asking her out for a while, and how sweet he had been. The she surprised him.

"I was so hurt because it seemed like the minute I wasn't fawning over him, he wanted me to! But if he wanted me to, then he would have said yes when I asked him… wouldn't he? But who does he think he is? It was like once he realized I wasn't fawning over him as usual, he suddenly wanted me there. Is he that much of an attention whore?" she practically sobbed. "I don't want to love a boy who doesn't love me back, and only wants me around to make himself feel better!"

"I think I see what you mean. You want him to like you because you're you, and you've been there all along," said Ino gently. "It sounds like he was really jealous, though."

Sakura sniffed. "He hasn't asked me to prom yet."

"Oh, that will be a problem with Lee."

"Definitely. I know Lee's going to ask me, but-"

To his horror, Sasuke's nose began to itch. A second later he sneezed loudly into one of Sakura's dresses.

A pin could have dropped as Ino and Sakura immediately stopped talking.

"Ino, did you hear that?"

Sasuke's heart pounded as he heard Sakura get up and walk toward the closet. This was the end, he was going to get caught, he'd never live to manhood-

From across the room, a Sakura's cell phone rang, muffled by her backpack. He could hear her turn around and run for the phone.

"Hello? Oh hey, Lee, how are you doing?"

Sasuke silently thanked God for Lee's impeccable timing.

" That's good, that's good…" she was silent for a few seconds. "Uh, hold on just a second, Lee, okay?" She put the phone down. "Ino! What should I do, he just asked me to prom!"

"Tell him you don't know if you your mom will let you go yet. You're going to ask her tomorrow."

"Nice save... Lee? Yeah, my mom is out of town, and I haven't asked her if it's ok for me to go… yeah, she liked to know where I am and stuff, but when she gets back tomorrow night I'll ask her and get back to you, ok?... Great! See you at school… bye now." Sasuke heard the sound of Sakura clicking her phone shut. "So it's decided then. If Sasuke doesn't ask me by tomorrow, I'll just go with Lee."

"Are you sure, Sakura? That seems a little harsh."

"I'm sure. If Sasuke really likes me as much as he says, then he should ask me. I can't wait forever for him to love me like I love him."

"That was deep, Sakura… so is he a good kisser?"

Sasuke scowled in the darkness at how quickly their conversation could turn from significant and on a certain level profound to trivial and light in a matter of seconds, a seamless transition from years of friendship.

"Actually it was better than last time."

"Last time?!"

"Yeah, we've kissed before… twice, actually, three times if you count today…"

"Oh. My. God. Fill me in."

Apparently, Sasuke's skills were getting better and better with each encounter. Between giggles and breathless confessions, he gauged that Sakura had actually enjoyed the surprise kiss earlier that day. Ino had just asked about the state of his tongue when Sakura's mother rapped on the door.

"Sakura, the pizza's ready!"

Sakura and Ino chattered excitedly out, shutting the door carefully behind them. Then there was silence. Not wasting any time, Sasuke carefully pushed the closet door open and waited until he heard their steps fade all the way down the stairs. He put the bra between his teeth to utilize both hands, as necessary in his operation of escape. Then he quickly crossed the room and hopped out the window, holding on the sill to get foothold on the latticing. After taking a few steps down, he jumped backward away from the wall and landed on his feet, bending his knees into the fall. He ran for the fence with legs like jello- out of nerves or fatigue he didn't know, but the threat of getting caught with a bra in his mouth was enough to propel him back over the fence and into his own yard.

Climbing back up into his room was harder. He had to shimmy up the drainpipe this time, but with a running start he was able to climb up the house on two feet, holding the drainpipe like a rope. When he got to his own windowsill he used the last of his strength to pull himself up through the open window. Exhausted, he collapsed onto the floor and did not move except to pant and hold the bra up with the last of his strength as a token of victory before his hand fell to the floor.

"LITTLE COUSIN! That was epic!" he heard Obito shout excitedly.

"We didn't think you were going to make it when Sakura and her friend came through the door, but you did! You're savage, kid!" praised Konan.

"Welcome to manhood, unn."

Sasuke tried to open his eyes, but everything was hazy. His throat was parched like a desert, and his whole face was pounding. The achy feeling had returned and settled in his bones this time, and rolling over was a challenge. Then he felt someone pull him up by the collar of his tee shirt and tossed him over a shoulder.

"Come on guys, the show's over. He's going to keel over with fever if we don't let him sleep."

"You're right, Kakashi. Let's let him sleep."

"His feet are all dirty." A woman's giggle. "Brush some of the grass off them, Pein."

"He's plumb tuckered out, isn't he?"

"He wasn't feeling well in class today. Between staring at Sakura and blowing his nose he didn't absorb anything."

"Poor baby."

He was dropped on the mattress like a sack of potatoes. A few seconds later, warm blankets were pulled over him and he instinctively curled up into his pillow.

"He's not a baby anymore, Itachi-chan. He's a man. Here, tuck his prize underneath his pillow there."

"But Tobi, it's wrong to touch another man's prize."

"I'll do it."

"Thanks, Konan."

"No prob, Itachi."

The lights had been switched out now and the window shut. He could hear footsteps tiptoeing down the hall, quiet talking floating up from downstairs, and the beginning of cars starting far away.

His hair was ruffled. "Goodnight, Little Cousin. I'm so proud of you."

And then he was alone in the dark, silent warmth of his bedroom. In the stillness, he slept.

**Author's Notes: Damn this was long. Hope you enjoyed it. ****I read every one of the reviews I get, btw, and I want to thank you guys for all the support.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: I would like to apologize for the long gap between updates. Not only did I have finals week to deal with, but my computer was in the shop getting fixed during Spring Break so I didn't have time to write (I get audio now!) . Thank you for your patience.**

Promenade

The first thing Sasuke was aware of was the sound of the phone ringing faintly downstairs. Slowly, his senses came back to him; he could feel his hand on his comforter, the smell of the shampoo he used lingering on his pillowcase, and the dim light of the sun creating long shadows in his room. His mouth was dry, and he realized he was ravenous with hunger. He turned his head slightly as his mother tiptoed into his room. Allowing himself to be doted over, Sasuke lay still as she sat on the side of his bed and stroked his hair gently.

"Sasucakes, honey," she prodded, "It's time to get up."

Now he was fully awake, but Sasuke was still not enticed to move.

She tenderly shook his shoulder. "Come on, baby, I bought tomatoes at the store today. I'll cut one for you the way you like it, where it quarters just right so the seeds don't spill out."

He wanted to milk this just a little longer.

"Come on, Sasuke, you've been asleep for three days."

At that, Sasuke jerked his head up in panic. "Are you serious?!"

Surprised, Mikoto stood up. "Yeah, it's Saturday. Your brother called in to your work to say you couldn't make it, and your driver's license came in the mail yesterday."

Inwardly, Sasuke swore. "I'll be right back Mom, I've got to talk to Sakura-"

"Sasuke dear," said his mother flatly, "you are not leaving this house until you've had a shower."

It was five thirty in the afternoon by the time Sasuke marched barefoot across the lawn over to Sakura's house, his hair still wet and dripping onto his shoulders. He didn't have a plan. His steps were almost erratic with anxiety across the grass and onto the Haruno's porch, but there was no stopping him now. He pounded on the door.

"Sakura! Haruno Sakura, let me in!" he shouted.

A few seconds later, a harried looking Sakura popped the door open and gave him a skeptical glare. "Where's the fire?"

Now that he was there he didn't know what to say, so his kneejerk reaction was just to stand and stare at her. She wasn't wearing makeup, and her hair was tossed carelessly back into a ponytail; she wasn't the sort to bother much on weekends. She met his gaze evenly, although confusion was etched onto her face. He knew he had to say something, anything to fill the chasm of awkward silence between them.

"Sa…Sakura." Again with the stuttering. "I have to ask you something."

"Um… ok. Don't hold back."

"Go to prom with me." It didn't come out right; it wasn't a question but a command, just the way he had thought it. He regretted looking her in the eye just then, because suddenly she looked very uncomfortable. After another painstaking moment of silence, she answered him.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke… well, Lee already asked me, and since prom's coming up so soon, and since you didn't ask me, I saidI'd go with him."

Sasuke's stomach plummeted. "Come on. I was sick," whined Sasuke.

"And you couldn't have asked before you got sick?" snapped Sakura, suddenly on the defensive. "How was I to know if you were going to ask me at all? Am I just supposed to-"

"And you're going with Lee? _Lee,_ of all people?" Sasuke sneered, feeling vicious. "Bushy Brows going to make sure you have the most youthful prom ever?"

"Don't make fun of him!"

"Are you kidding me, Sakura? The guy can't go five minutes without telling someone how much he likes you, and he's always fawning over you and saying- saying stupid things, and doing stupid things that won't make you like him as anything less than a friend!"

"Well at least he says things!"

"I told you I liked you and you didn't believe me!"

Sakura glared at him. "Well it's too late now. You should have asked me last week when you had the chance. I've made a commitment, and I'm not going to back out of it now."

Sasuke pouted. "But… but what if he tries to-"

"Goodnight, Sasuke." With that, she turned on her heel and slammed into the house. He stared bewilderedly at the door for a few moments before moping home. Even tomatoes and couldn't cheer him up now.

From Sasuke's point of view, this looked like the end of his friendship with Sakura. Now that he had his license, they left the house at different times for school that Monday and did not speak to each other in the classes they had together. She didn't turn to look at him, and when lunchtime rolled around, Sasuke sat with his soccer friends, figuring it was better to not show up at their table than to be ignored by the main person he wanted to eat with anyway. Tobi was off visiting another friend in the area that week, and Sasuke didn't want to admit it but the loss of the two of them left him very lonely.

His pessimistic attitude persisted for three days, during which time he took to avoiding Sakura on their breaks and silently observing her during class. Part of him was left genuinely averse to her company after their argument on Saturday, but underneath was still the pull to sit next to her, the urge to talk to her, and the feeling that he was missing something, like water slipping through his fingers.

Suddenly Sasuke also found himself observing Lee intently, initially with unconcealed jealousy. The way Lee would come up to Sakura in the hallway and just greet her before coming to class made his stomach churn. But Lee had other habits that even Sasuke could not find fault in.

On Thursday, Sasuke took a long time at his locker after school and the halls were sparse by the time he slammed the door shut. It was relatively quiet because only the stragglers like him were still there. Suddenly a sharp cry echoed through the corridors. Normally Sasuke would not have been interested- it was probably just some kids messing around, anyway- but as he turned the corner, he saw a different scene unfolding before his eyes.

Suigetsu was standing against the wall, holding Konohamaru, a freshman, up against the wall by the hood of his jacket. Sasuke knew the brown-haired kid as a friend and neighbor of Naruto's- the mayor's grandson, a loud kid, but not obnoxious. At school he minded his own business and didn't throw is weight around like most freshmen. He was a little short for his age, but then lots of boys were short as freshman- like Naruto. He was a nice kid, he really was, but this was just not Sasuke's place to get involved. Suigetsu could get very nasty when he wanted to, and a fistfight or getting his head shoved into the toilet was not what Sasuke needed while he was feeling like such an idiot about Sakura.

Konohamaru's short, undeveloped little legs kicked against the wall as Suigetsu licked the tips of his sharp teeth. "Well, Little Man, let me rephrase myself in case you didn't understand me the first time. You. Will. Give-"

"Halt, Suigetsu!"

It was Rock Lee. Sasuke ducked behind a locker.

"Can I help you, Eyebrows?"

"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about the swim team." Lee held up a small tape recorder and a notepad. "For the school paper."

Suigetsu's attention diverted, Konohamaru was able to squirm back down the floor. Suigetsu glared at him out of the corner of his eye and gave Lee a dirty look. "What's in it for me?"

"Well, the editor of the school paper, Kurenai-sensei, was wondering about how you feel about our swim facilities. If there is enough dissent among the swim team that Konoha High takes so much pride in, the school board might give us some funds."

"They suck," spat Suigetsu. With another glance back to Konohamaru, he turned away and followed Lee down the hall. "We need to get a new diving board, and…"

Konohamaru gave Lee a thumbs up. Behind his back, Lee returned the gesture as he and the shark-toothed bully turned down the hallway. From out of nowhere, a little red-headed freshman with pigtails ran up to Konohamaru and pulled him up off the floor.

"I was so worried! I thought he had you!"

"Yeah, thanks for the help, Moegi."

"Shut up."

Bickering playfully, the two walked out the doors of the school. _So that's why she likes him._ Watching them turned Sasuke's mood sour- Lee had been the better man and Konohamaru had gotten the girl, but he was left empty handed.

The Saturday of prom dawned hot and sticky. Determined not to think about Sakura all day, Sasuke showered quickly and crammed down some cereal before heading out to work. His resolve was tested when a car pulled up to Sakura's driveway and deposited Hinata and Ino onto the sidewalk, dresses bagged up and makeup bags in tote. _God, how much time do they need?_

He was out of the driveway and down the street before he could see Sakura come to the door to greet them.

Konan wasn't there yet, but Pein greeted Sasuke with a cheery smile as he made his way to the back where the cars were kept. He barely noticed Hidan swearing at him to get to work before he attacked the first car with his squeegee. After the first few cars he began to work up a sweat in the humid morning sun, but it cleared his mind. The physical labor kept him from sulking. He barely even heard when Hidan stopped him hours later for lunch.

"Slow down, shithead. It's lunchtime and Konan's brought pizza."

Lunchtime at Daybreak Car Rental was always an interesting affair, although in his current state of mind Sasuke could hardly enjoy it. He ate a few pieces of pizza hurriedly while Kakuzu, the miserly man in who kept the books, and Hidan bickered about the toppings ("I fcking hate artichoke hearts!" "Shut up, Konan knows that they're the cheapest things on the menu,") and Konan filled out forms, careful not to get grease on them. Sasuke didn't wait for Hidan to usher him back out to wash more cars and limos. Around three o'clock, Konan called him inside for two tedious hours of data-entry and filing, which he did mindlessly without comment as the radio played from the back of Konan's office. At five, Konan came in with a soda and cookies for him.

"You can stop now," said Konan brightly, surprised at how quickly he had finished his task. "Take a breather and I'll get you your cash for today." She ruffled his sweaty hair casually. "Then you can get out of here." The cookies went down like sawdust, but at least the soda was cool, a welcome change from the stuffy office. Konan came back a few minutes later with a wad of cash in her hand. She counted it all out for him, a total that he had racked up during the week. "Now go home, Uchiha."

Sasuke trudged lifelessly down the stairs. When he reached the foot of the stairs, he heard a familiar voice that caused him to stop just before appearing behind the counter.

"Reservation for a limo under Rock Lee." Sure enough, the bushy-browed wonder was in the office to pick up a limo rental. Sasuke vaguely recalled overhearing that Naruto, Hinata, Neji and his date Tenten, Lee, and Sakura had all decided to pitch in money for a limo to go to prom in.

"Sure, we've got your limo out back. Your party has already put up a down payment…" there was a rustling of papers as Hidan flipped through the books. "So that will be one hundred dollars."

For a moment there was silence as Rock Lee dug in his pockets, and after several moments Hidan began to get impatient. "Dammed kid, do you have the money kid, or not?"

Sasuke peeked out from the stairs. Lee was searching frantically through all the pockets in his tux for his wallet with a look of desperation on his face. "I must have left it on the bus, oh God- I'll be right back," said Lee frantically. He bolted out of the office and down the street.

Sasuke finally turned the corner and headed around the counter to the main part of the office. _If Lee forgot his wallet on the bus, there's no way he's getting it back._ The thought was enough to stop him in his tracks. If they didn't get the limo, Sakura and the others wouldn't be able to get to prom. He could feel the money in his pocket- half of it was enough to cover the remaining cost of the limo.

Sasuke didn't know what possessed him to turn back to the counter where Hidan was tapping at the computer and muttering obscenities about irresponsible teenagers. It certainly wasn't a desire to help Lee, or Neji, or even Naruto, but if this is what Sakura wanted, he would see it done, with or without him. He counted out one hundred dollars in twenties and plopped it on the counter.

"Cover that guy," he said to Hidan, who looked up from the monitor and raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell? Do you even know that guy?"

"Yeah. I owe him."

"Are you sure about this, Uchiha?"

Sasuke took a deep breath before answering. "Yes, I'm sure. His cell number is in his reservation information, right? Call him back here. He'll never catch the bus."

Hidan was surprised, but none the less processed the transaction and punched Lee's number into the office phone and held it to his ear as it rang. "What do you want me to tell him?"

"I don't really give a shit." With that, Sasuke turned and sped out the door. He was parked a few blocks away in the downtown parking garage, and as he walked into the shaded cement complex he wondered which of the limos he had washed that day would take Sakura to prom. Not so eager to head home so early, Sasuke drove to the mall- he still had some cash to blow, and besides, the next edition of _Shonen Jump_ was out.

It was dark by the time Sasuke parked his car in the driveway and headed into the house. His parents had already eaten dinner and Tobi had not yet returned, so he heated up the remains of teriyaki chicken in the microwave. If Itachi was lurking about, he made no effort to talk to Sasuke, and his parents had picked up on his bad mood and gave him space to eat and fume in silence.

To his surprise, dinner made him feel a little better, but it was not until he showered off the day's sweat and grime did Sasuke really feel at peace. The warm water and steam gave him a feeling of contentedness, and for the first time in a week, he thought that maybe he could live without going to prom with Sakura. It wasn't like she was dating Lee, or anything. Maybe tomorrow, he'd call her and apologize, he thought sleepily. _Tomorrow._

The night was warm. Still not in the mood to socialize, Sasuke took his copy of _Jump_ out to the front porch where Tobi had set up a hammock before he left. In the semi-darkness, he started to read. The hours slipped by as he found solace in the problems of the Straw Hat Pirates and an escape into the inner workings of the soul society. After a time, his eyes slipped closed.

When he finally awoke, the porch light had been turned off and the night was still. The streetlights shone and the neighbor's houses were quiet. Ryuu trotted up to him from across the street with a dead mouse in his mouth, his gray fur wet with dew. The cat dropped the rodent at the steps and jumped into the hammock with Sasuke, who scratched behind his ears. _At least someone loves me._ Ryuu purred loudly.

The sound of a car rolling down the street broke the silence. Sasuke turned his head to see a long black limo pull up to the Haruno's next door. As the door opened, he could hear loud music being blasted from inside. Laughing, Sakura stepped out of the car with her small clutch purse and heels in her hands. She waved goodbye, and Sasuke heard some shouts of farewell from within. Then the limo sped into the night.

Sasuke didn't mind watching her as she walked through her yard and descended the steps to her door. He was a little surprised that Lee hadn't seen here there, but then Sakura didn't look sad or disappointed. In fact, he indulged himself to think her beautiful. Her hair was loose and curled about her shoulders, and her deep red dress was pale in the moonlight. She let herself into the house and disappeared. Sasuke leaned back down and swayed peacefully in the hammock.

A second later, he heard the door open and shut. Sakura stepped out of the house again, without the purse and barefoot but still in her dress. Leaving it unlocked, she scampered down the steps and across the lawn to his porch. Surprised, Sasuke sat up in the hammock. Sakura tiptoed up to the porch railing.

"Sasuke?" she breathed. Gingerly, she tiptoed onto the porch and slid into the hammock beside him. Speechless, Sasuke turned to look at her.

"You're here," he said confusidly. "Why?"

Sakura hung her head. "I wanted to apologize."

Dumbstruck, Sasuke sat up and stared at her until he found his voice. "Why are you apologizing? I was a jerk, and-"

"Lee told me what you did," she interrupted. _So Hidan told him the truth._ "And that was really selfless of you, Sasuke. I know you didn't do it for Lee, and I was so rude to you… I'm sorry."

"Sakura-"

"No, let me finish. I didn't listen to you, and I didn't take your feelings seriously- I mean, I think I had a good reason, but even so, I shouldn't have been so…so… dismissive of you, and…" She trailed off, blushing.

"Sakura, I'm sorry. For everything," said Sasuke solemnly. "I was the one who dismissed you, for years- I had it coming to me. Really, I deserve it."

They swayed in silence for a moment.

"I still love you, you know," she breathed. Their eyes met with a quiet spark, and after a second they mutually leaned in.

If their first kiss was rushed, and the others non-consenting or frustrated, then this one was perfect. Clandestine in the darkness they kissed while Sasuke's heart pounded through his chest and Sakura pulled him close, swaying in the breeze.

When they parted, Sasuke let his head fall to her shoulder. "What are we?" he whispered. "Let's be official."

"Let's."

**End Notes: Not a humorous chapter. I hope you're happy with the conclusion: no fireworks or waterfalls and rainbows, but I believe that love comes quietly- and to me, that's more romantic. Once again, I'd like to apologize for the long gap between updates, **

**especially if this didn't live up to your expectations. One last chapter, the Epilogue, will follow this one. Thank you so much, Boba readers. –LittleSax**

**P.S. By the way, Sasuke and Sakura might not know it, but in my mind, Mikoto and Tobi were watching them out on the hammock from the living room window, cheering them on.**


End file.
